Tourism minds meet for Morocco climate change summit

Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT) is well represented at one of the world’s leading climate change and sustain ability conferences.

The 22nd session of Conference of the Parties (COP 22) has begun at Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco and will continue to November18 November.

The ‘Conference of the Parties’ is the top decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened for signature in 1992 during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and later entered into force in 1994. Through this instrument, the UN has equipped itself with an action framework to fight global warming.

GIFT will be present at the event, represented by director, Professor Susanne Becken and PhD candidate Christopher Warren.

Executive Secretary UNFCCC and conference host Patricia Espinosa, has highlighted the importance of the COP 22.

“The UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech is the crucial next step for governments looking to operationalize the Paris Climate Change Agreement adopted last year,” she said.”While the Paris Agreement gave clear pathways and a final destination in respect to decisive action on climate change, many of the details regarding how to move forward as one global community in that common direction still need to be resolved.”

Alongside the COP 22, the Ministry of Tourism of Morocco is hosting a three-day tourism side event under the theme “Advancing Sustainable Tourism in a Changing Climate”. The objective is to ‘promote increased awareness and action by the tourism sector on the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable development agenda’.

Professor Becken along with Lucas Bobes, Group Environmental Officer of Amadeus IT Group, will be launching their white paper on ‘Carbon Reporting in Travel and Tourism’ .

Professor Becken and Mr Bobes aim to share their knowledge on their carbon reporting investigations and encourage discussion and action within the tourism sector to address climate challenges. Their presentation will be held on Friday (November 11) at the Palmeraie Golf Palace Hotel in Marrakech.