Flight path for carbon neutral
Luke Martin says the world is changing rapidly as it recovers from the pandemic, especially regarding greenhouse gases
HERE is an inconvenient truth — civil aviation is responsible for 2 per cent of global carbon emissions.
In the scheme of things, this might sound like a relatively small number until you consider only 5 per cent of the world’s population can afford to travel by air. A return flight between London and Sydney can emit greenhouse gases equivalent to three tonnes of CO2 per person — more than most people’s carbon footprint for a year.
Before the pandemic, the tourism industry worldwide was confronting the inherent conflict between our love of Earth and the hard reality that we do constitute one of the most carbon-dense forms of human activity.
Values and expectations on our industry have changed rapidly, with the spotlight on what different sectors of the travel industry and individual destinations are doing to mitigate their contribution to the global climate emergency.
This is not just a question of science and conservation, but also a commercial one.
The travelling public is more than ever making consumer decisions based on their aspiration for responsible travel. Across the globe we are seeing examples of where carbon-responsible travel is being driven by consumers.
In 2018, the Flygskam movement (literally meaning “flight shame”) was powered by social media and Greta Thunberg and over the course of a few months managed to slow, and then reverse into decline, Sweden’s previous exponential annual growth in air travel.
Across Europe, demand for sleeper trains is growing for the first time in decades, with the European Union scrambling to re-establish overnight commuter services between major population centres long thought to have been consigned to history, and the modernity of budget air travel. Airlines are responding to this trend by bringing forward carbon neutrality targets and investing in low-emission technology.
Qantas is leading the way, with its commitment to be a zero-emission airline by 2050.
The world’s largest hotel operator, Marriott, has set itself a target to reduce its global carbon intensity by 30 per cent in the next five years.
Airbnb in the US has started marketing comparable emission outputs of staying with one of their hosts compared with a hotel.
The message is clear; there is a fast shift occurring in the global travel market to carbon sustainability that is only likely to accelerate as global travel recovers.
The opportunity for Tasmania is to be at the front of this global movement.
In his State of the State speech before calling the election, Premier Peter Gutwein announced a target for Tasmania to be a carbonneutral visitor destination by 2025. This priority was determined by industry and the state government through our T21 Tasmanian Visitor Economy Action Plan for how we want our industry to grow over the next decade. It will make Tasmania one of the first destinations on the planet working to offset carbon emissions of visitors to our islands by investing in carbon dioxide-capturing activities such as reforestation.
We are only able to set such a target because of our renewable energy base, meaning our emissions are already very low compared to other destinations. In a postcarbon world, our renewable energy base will continue to be a massive competitive advantage for Tasmania that tourism can leverage.
But achieving the vision of
a carbon-neutral destination will not be easy and will require investment and commitment by industry and government over years.
We firstly need to agree on a financial model to cover the cost of offsetting visitors’ emissions while they are in the state. How many visitors might be willing to pay a few dollars to offset their stay in Tasmania, and how could these funds be raised?
There are many fantastic Tasmanian tourism operators already carbon-neutral, or who are investing to reduce their carbon footprint.
What can be done to encourage more tourism operators to join them, and how do we recognise and celebrate those businesses leading the way?
We need to rapidly expand our capacity to offset carbon.
If we wanted to be carbonneutral right now, we would not have the capacity in Tasmania to sufficiently offset visitor emissions. There is a big
challenge and opportunity for Tasmania to position itself as Australia’s carbon bank, creating jobs in conservation and land management, but that is a discussion beyond the tourism industry.
We also need to balance the aspirations for our industry to emerge over coming years as a global example of sustainable and responsible tourism, with the daily commercial realities for our operators coming out of COVID and the disruptions many are still experiencing.
What is keeping most of our operators awake at night is how busy this coming July will be. Our challenge is to balance the immediate priorities of our sector around survival and recovery, with what’s in the best long-term interests.
How we respond in coming months and years will determine where Tasmania finds itself in the era of carbon-responsible tourism.