The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced the launch of a Net Zero Roadmap for the travel & tourism sector to support the industry in combating climate change during its virtual climate week event. It also announced the launch of ground-breaking social and environmental research data. The first time such data will be produced across the whole sector, building on WTTC’s annual high-anticipated Economic Impact Report (EIR).

These vital pieces of work represent WTTC’s biggest deliverables in the sector’s drive towards net zero by 2050. The powerful initiative is being run in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and professional services and consulting experts, Accenture. WTTC made the announcement at its virtual ‘Net Zero Travel & Tourism – From Ambition to Action’ event today, during annual Climate Week NYC.

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said in a statement that the launch of Net Zero Roadmap for the Travel & Tourism sector and development of sector wide data to measure our success are major steps to show how Travel & Tourism is playing its part in addressing climate change.  She mentioned that WTTC, alongside its partners and sponsors, looks forward to offering tangible and meaningful solutions to meet the climate change challenge.

She also said that in collaboration with UNEP and Accenture, WTTC will launch the Net Zero Roadmap for the travel & tourism sector at COP26 in Glasgow next month. This is a major new initiative that will support our industries on their journeys to become Net Zero. She stated that as a sector, the organization is aware that not all industries can achieve such goals at the same time, which is why the Net Zero Roadmap will be so critical.

The Net Zero Roadmap will include a status quo overview of climate actions in travel & tourism, direct lessons learned from the past 18 months, and will include action frameworks for specific industries to help accelerate climate commitments and emissions reduction. WTTC will regularly monitor and update this climate action inventory research, providing continuous updates until the Travel & Tourism sector’s targets are achieved.

During the virtual event, which was sponsored by IHG, participants discussed the sustainability challenges the Travel & Tourism sector faces, along with the creation of the way forward in the sector’s quest to become net zero. The interactive session included remarks by Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, and representatives for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Arnold Donald, WTTC Chair and President and CEO of Carnival Corporation, Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer Americas, IHG, Alex Zozaya, Chairman of Apple Leisure Group, and Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Global CEO of JLL Hotels and Hospitality among others.