“The Road to Climate Neutrality: Experiences, Challenges and Support / The Caribbean tourism sector in the COVID-19 recovery” Regional Webinar Successfully Concluded

The COVID-19 impacted the global economy, but even greater impact on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean. The recovery from COVID-19 is crucial to Caribbean countries, which are highly dependent on the tourism sector. With experts from various sectors, we discussed experiences, challenges and support from different perspectives.

At the “The Road to Climate Neutrality: Experiences, Challenges, and Support” - a Regional Webinar for the Caribbean - prominent speakers from companies, organizations and governments provided their perspectives on the road towards climate neutrality. Organized on 6th July as a collaboration between UNFCCC-WINDREF RCC St. George’s, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the UNFCCC Secretariat. The virtual event brought together more than 100 registered participants from across the region.

The webinar began with an opening remark from Dr. Dirk Glaesser, Director of Sustainable Development of Tourism Department, United Nations World Tourism Organization. Dr. Glasser provided research evidence of transport-related emission from tourism, and introduced UNWTO’s high-ambition scenario and a way to influence that: climate-aware tourism promotion.

Following the opening session, Miguel Naranjo from the UNFCCC secretariat, presented the revamped Climate Neutral Now initiative with new criteria, tools and opportunities for organizations to get engaged in climate action. He also invited participants to join the upcoming webinar series on how to get started on the road to net zero, providing practical actions and examples on measuring, reducing and reporting on GHG emissions.

A panel discussion on climate neutrality was then convened to explore what activities the tourism sector in the Caribbean is undertaking to move towards climate neutrality, as well as the benefits of doing so. The panel discussion on climate neutrality was moderated by Ms. Katie Sullivan, Managing Director, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and included the following panelists of private sector climate leaders and experts: Ms. Loreto Duffy-Mayers, Regional project lead, UN Caribbean Cooling Initiative; Christine Young, Board member, Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST); Mr. Ewald Biemans, Owner and CEO, Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort; Mr. Christopher Imbsen, Director of Sustainability, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

They shed light on the difficulties and challenges that exist, to help and inspire other companies in their sustainability journey. Loreto shared her past experience that economic feasibility and lack of education block adopting energy-efficient AC system in the tourism sector, Christine said COVID-19 is an opportunity for the tourism sector to pay attention to climate change, Ewald highlighted tourism is nature business as it impacts nature greatly with labors involved and no tourism can happen without the nature attracting tourists, and Christopher shared WTTC’s finding that accessibility to resources is critical for Caribbean tourism sector to climate neutrality.

Following the panel discussion on climate neutrality, a policy roundtable was organized, in which panelists discussed what enabling environment and policies are needed to support organizations in the tourism sector in their journey to reach climate neutrality. Ms. Loreto Duffy-Mayers moderated the policy roundtable, Regional project lead, UN Caribbean Cooling Initiative and included the following panelists: Mr. Tarran Simms, Coordinator of the Sustainable Tourism Department, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation; Ms. Amanda Charles, Sustainable Tourism Specialist, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO); Mr. Tetsuya Tanaka, Chief of Climate Change Section in Environment, Air Transport Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); Ms. Virginia Fernandez-Trapa, Programme Officer of the Sustainable Development of Tourism Department, UNWTO.

During the roundtable, Tarran pointed out that the tourism sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change as most of its infrastructure is located on the coastline. He also shared his view on 5 areas needed to develop mitigation strategy: technical support, business management, behavioral, policy, research and education. Amanda gave her view highlighting 4 main challenges which confront the tourism sector as it relates to climate change adaptation and mitigation: lack of understanding of the various concepts and terminology, competing priority due to limited resources, failure to recognize opportunities and the value of climate mitigation and adaptation action, and low level of inter-sectoral linkages. Tetsuya shared 3 lessons learned from the launch of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA): raising awareness through education, finding fairway for parties in the scheme, data collection from all member states. Virginia highlighted COVID-19 brought growing consensus among tourism stakeholders that future resilience will depend on its ability to embrace a low carbon pathway and announced the Global Survey of Climate Action in Tourism that UNWTO is leading within the framework of the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme.

The webinar ended with closing remarks from two prominent speakers: Ms. Diane Quarless, Chief of Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, ECLAC; Mr. Niclas Svenningsen, Manager of Global Climate Action, UNFCCC.

Ms. Quarless summarized today’s discussion and highlighted the increasing vulnerability of the tourism sector in the Caribbean to climate change. She emphasized that climate neutrality must become a central goal in the national development plan of the Caribbean.

Mr. Svenningsen gave a final remark with a background of warming stripes, each line representing one year from 1901 to 2020 in the Caribbean. He reminded agreed messages of today’s webinar: the need for climate action immediately, the need to adapt to climate change. He concluded today’s webinar by highlighting that we should aim for a healthy and thriving tourism sector by healthy society and ecosystem supporting the tourism sector. Without a planet, we will not have tourism.

The event was organized by the UNFCCC-WINDREF RCC St. George’s, UNWTO, ECLAC, UNFCCC Secretariat, and moderated by Mr. Jongho Suh, Associate Climate Specialist at RCC St. George’s. To learn more about the Climate Neutral Now initiative, do not hesitate to reach out to Miguel Naranjo from the UNFCCC secretariat:  mnaranjogonzalez@unfccc.int. 

You can check the recording of this webinar here. If you have questions about the event or want to get in contact with any of the speakers, you can reach out to RCC St. George’s: RCCStGeorges@unfccc.int.