When global climate negotiatiors gathered at Baku in Azerbaijan on November 11 for the 29th round of the negotiations under COP29, they had little to show for themselves as the negotiations and the agreements reached had failed to deliver and total carbon emissions have continued to rise.

So high are the emissions now and so dire is the state of the world’s climate, that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which conducts these negotiations, issued a warning few days ago that global warming around the world will continue to rise sharply for many years to come as carbon emissions show no signs of easing.

It is in this sombre backdrop that the tourism industry made its debut at the negotiations, which had thus far centred around more ‘hardcore’ sectors like energy generation, construction, transportation, agriculture, industry and mining.

But even though tourism may not have been at the centre of climate change negotiations so far, the sector is in a unique position to show the way ahead to the global negotiatiors who seem to have been moving in circles so far and have little to show for nearly three decades of discussions on cutting carbon emissions.

According to Azerbaijan government which hosted COP29, the fortnight-long discussions at Baku included tourism as addressing the challenges of climate change in urban environments required greater engagement across all sectors and levels, from the local to the regional and global. They said that the role of transportation in climate agenda needed to be addressed as a related priority and the first Tourism Day at a COP was organised to increase attention on how the sector is affected and can contribute. A high-level meeting on tourism was also hosted on the occasion and the COP29 Declaration on Enhanced Action in Tourism launched.

Besides official delegations of tourism ministries from around the world, COP29 also saw a significant number of global travel and tourism sector representatives.

Amongst the organisations leading the private sector participation at COP29 was the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) which has signed the United Nations Climate Neutral Now initiative and has pledged to measure its greenhouse gas emissions, reduce what it can and offset the rest, while promoting the same climate-friendly regimen to its 150 members worldwide.

The induction of tourism at the global meeting is a significant step since the industry plays a critical role in global economy, contributing over 10 pc of the total GDP of the world and also accounts for almost 10 pc of total employment. Moreover, tourism is also critical as it is an industry that is spread out even in remote areas and provides a major support in terms of employment and livelihood for hundreds of millions of people living in areas where there are few alternative employment opportunities.

The induction of tourism at UNFCCC negotiations is also welcome since tourism is also vulnerable to climate change as extreme weather incidents like floods, landslides, wildfires, heatwaves or droughts have begun to impact tourism in a significant manner, at least in some parts of the world.

And just like representatives of vulnerable communities highlight their plight to the UNFCCC, being present at this important meeting allowed the tourism sector also to bring its vulnerabilities and the damage caused by climate change to tourism economy into the limelight.

But tourism is not only a victim of climate change, it is also a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and tourism has and continues to damage ecology in many ways and practically all around the world.

It is in this regard that the tourism industry can be the flag bearer for climate action. In many ways, the industry is an ideal laboratory for the humanity to try new ways of living since it has a very wide distribution and the industry includes behemoths with billions of dollars in revenues as well as pigmys with barely a few hundred dollars in earnings. Thus unlike most other industries, it is an ideal representative of the global economy and experiments can be done at pilot levels to see how to cut the carbon footprint and make the industry as sustainable as possible.

However, the record of tourism industry in dealing with its carbon emissions and curbing pollution caused by its activities has been far from encouraging. Even basic measures, for which technology or alternatives already exist and which require more of an attitudinal change rather than large investments, have not been implemented.

Take for instance, the basic issue of large hotels going plastic free. All it takes to remove plastic is a time-bound instruction from the head office to all the outlets under the franchise to phase out plastics within days. But even this basic step has not been implemented in large hotels.

Their track record in treating their own waste water as well as curbing solid waste production and separation is far from encouraging as it displays a devil may-care attitude, even though at every given photo opportunity or at every public forum they keep talking of how green they are.

Airlines genuinely face a shortage of sustainable aviation fuel, due to limited production

Similarly, in terms of transport, be it cruise, road or air, absolute carbon emissions are far from declining and widespread adoption of greener alternatives remain beyond the horizon for now. Though airlines genuinely face a shortage of sustainable aviation fuel, due to limited production, but they have failed to undertake other measures to reduce their impact on climate, be it through phase out of single use plastics or waste management.

Though the current track record of the industry as a whole in dealing with climate change is less than encouraging, nonetheless COP29 presented a genuine opportunity for the tourism world to make an impact and show the way ahead to other industries on curbing their emissions and pollution control.

The million dollar question is whether the global tourism industry is prepared to seize the opportunity or let it pass, pretty much its counterparts in all other sectors of the economy.