The Ministry of Tourism, the island councils, the employers' associations and a large representation of tourism agents met in Lanzarote to formalize their incorporation into the Glasgow Climate Declaration, sponsored by the United Nations and which obliges the sector to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% in eight years.
The Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla, presented at Marina Innova Hub the Master Plan for Climate Action prepared by the public company Turismo de Islas Canarias with which a boost will be given to the decarbonization of the sector.
The event was attended by representatives of the seven island councils, chambers of commerce, employers' associations and various tourism agents, as well as interventions by the managing director of Turismo de Islas Canarias, José Juan Lorenzo, and the director of Sustainable Tourism Development at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Dirk Glaesser, through a video.
The Minister recalled that, for two years, the Tourism of the Canary Islands team has been "working to be pioneers in the reduction and elimination of the carbon footprint through our strategy of transformation of the tourism model Canarias Destino, with which we promote increasing the commitment to climate neutrality of the Canary Islands tourism industry throughout its value chain."
A task that responds to the fact that "sustainability is today not only an ethical or awareness-raising commitment, but also an economic and competitive one," added the Minister, who explained that the entire tourism sector has been moving along this path for some time and that, to move forward, Turismo de Canarias will provide a series of tools to comply with the Glasgow Declaration, which obliges to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% in 2030 and achieve climate neutrality in 2050.
The Canary Islands is the second autonomous community to join this commitment and the first to do so with the Climate Action Plan already prepared and with massive support from the sector, as about thirty entities from the islands have already joined.
Climate Action Master Plan
To achieve this decarbonization, the Ministry makes available to companies a Climate Action Master Plan that Turismo de Islas Canarias began to develop in April of this year and that follows the roadmap set by Glasgow with five lines of action.
Firstly, the measurement of the carbon footprint, for which a calculator will be offered to companies; then, decarbonization, for which advice and support will be offered, as well as a catalog of measures to adopt; thirdly, the regeneration and protection of ecosystems, and collaboration with private companies.
Currently, there are 15.9 million for tourist accommodation establishments, 9 million more for non-accommodation establishments and 4 million that will be managed by the island councils for island establishments of tourist interest. To these, will be added 139 million for tourist sustainability plans and two million more for a public-private collaboration framework aimed at helping companies to compensate their carbon footprint and in whose bases Turismo de Islas Canarias is already working.
The five paths of the Plan
The managing director of Turismo de Islas Canarias, José Juan Lorenzo, was in charge of detailing the Climate Action Master Plan, whose first action is measurement. To this end, Lorenzo announced that there is already the carbon footprint calculation application that will be made available to companies in the Sustainability App of the Tourist Destination Platform Islas Canarias. This is a tool that will allow to collect real and detailed data from a sector that in 2019 emitted 1.85 million tons of CO2.
"It consists of a private area in which, individually, companies will be able to start their journey to decarbonization through four modules: Calculate, Define, Reduce and Compensate," said the managing director, who announced that, although now personalized support will be offered because it is a very complex issue, "the intention is that the application will end up being completely self-managed." The app, which is free, is designed from a pilot experience in which 35 local tourism companies participated and under recognized international standards for quantification.
Turismo de Islas Canarias has also developed the steps to follow for decarbonization itself, "for which we will offer a comprehensive advisory service from our Sustainability Office to accompany companies in this process, including the elaboration of their own climate action plans and the improvement of the control of the carbon footprint of their activity," added Lorenzo. A User Service Center (CAU) will provide technical assistance for information and resolution of incidents, as well as to facilitate the use of the various digital products: the calculator, the decarbonization measures, the management of regeneration projects and the sources of financing.
There is also a catalog with decarbonization measures that, for the moment, consists of 220 actions ordered by sectors (accommodation, restaurants, excursions and active tourism, land transport, inter-island maritime transport and points of tourist interest) and areas of action (acquisition of goods and services, fixed combustion, mobile combustion, electricity consumption, refrigeration and air conditioning, waste management, water management, transport and distribution, and work trips). For each of the measures, information is detailed regarding the estimated reduction potential and the level of difficulty of its implementation.
For the third path, regeneration, the Plan contemplates the definition and implementation of a permanent framework of public-private collaboration, which starts with an initial endowment of 2 million euros to promote, facilitate and execute collaborative actions of regeneration and protection of ecosystems as compensation for the carbon footprint of impossible or difficult reduction. In this way, "companies and other organizations in the sector, regardless of their size and their volume of emissions generation, will be able to access regeneration projects more quickly and easily, which will result in an improvement of the destination, its spaces and natural resources and the well-being of its inhabitants," explained the managing director.
To meet the set objectives, the fifth path arises, financing, for which two measures are articulated in the Master Plan, the establishment of lines of subsidies aimed at financing energy efficiency projects (29 million euros) and the development of sustainability plans (139 million euros).
Support from the World Tourism Organization
In his video participation, Dirk Glaesser, director of Sustainable Tourism Development at the World Tourism Organization, highlighted the suitability of "the launch of the Climate Action Plan of the Canary Islands destination taking place simultaneously with the signing of the Glasgow Declaration."
"As a leading destination, its proactive approach and the participatory process that they have followed to develop the plan are a good example for other destinations that are also looking for ways to play a multiplier role and support the destination's tourism industry to accelerate climate action," said the UNWTO representative in his recorded intervention. This organization has invited Turismo de Canarias to present its decarbonization strategy at the next United Nations Climate Change Conference.
