Wednesday, November 16, 2022
With ever-increasing numbers of tourists visiting the region, Mediterranean countries are coming under growing pressure to tackle the related environmental impacts, including air and water pollution.
The Mediterranean is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, thanks to its unique natural ecosystems and cultural and historical heritage.
In 2019, the area welcomed more than 400 million international tourists, figures that are expected to grow further in the coming years, hitting the 500 million mark by the end of the decade.
But while the tourism industry has become a key driver of economic activity for the region, it comes with an environmental cost.
With the COP27 climate summit still in full swing in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the contribution of tourism to greenhouse gas emissions is coming under closer scrutiny.
The Mediterranean is one of the regions most affected by climate change, warming 20% faster than the global average, according to the United Nations environment programme (UNEP).
In the past two decades, water temperatures have increased by an average of 0.4°C, air temperatures by 1.54°C, and the sea level is 6cm higher than it was 20 years ago.
The Mediterranean coastal areas will be more affected by the effects of climate change than other areas, with an intensification of extreme events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and water shortages, explained Céline Dubreuil, programme director at Plan Bleu, a UNEP-backed regional programme with headquarters in Marseille, France.
Speaking at a conference as part of COP27’s Mediterranean pavilion on Friday (11 November), Dubreuil said that the Mediterranean region is facing unprecedented climate and environmental challenges that have important consequences on human wellbeing, health and economic activities, including tourism.
The Mediterranean needs a profound transformation of consumption and production patterns to achieve sustainability, she added.
Plan Bleu is one of the regional activity centres of the Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP, put in place by France in 1977.
It was created after the signature of the Barcelona Convention in 1975, which was adopted by Mediterranean countries and the European Community to protect the marine environment and the coastal area.
The plan’s objective is to produce studies and guidelines in order to raise awareness about environmental issues in the region and assist local decision-makers in the transition towards a green economy, such as the sustainability of cruising and recreational boating.
The cruise and private yachting sectors are key economic activities for the region, yet they substantially contribute to emissions of air and water pollutants as well as greenhouse gases.
Some solutions have been highlighted in these guidelines, Dubreuil explained, citing the progressive replacement of fossil fuels in yachts with alternatives such as liquefied natural gas, biomethane or e-methane.
In the longer term, this is one of the most relevant solutions, but it requires also equipping ports with the corresponding infrastructure, she remarked.
The Glasgow Declaration
The pledge to reduce the environmental impacts of the sector was codified in the Glasgow Declaration on climate action in tourism, launched at last year’s COP26.
It so far has about 450 signatories, ranging from local tourism associations, universities, hotel chains and tour operators as well as other businesses in the sector.
The declaration was created by the sector and for the sector. It works as a voluntary commitment, said Virginia Fernandez-Trapa, programme officer at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
The rationale behind it was that climate action in tourism was insufficient or not approached in a consistent manner.
So, together with different partners, they put our heads together and defined what we now think is a framework to streamline and accelerate climate action in tourism.
Signatories are requested to commit to halving emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero before 2050. To achieve these objectives, they are expected to deliver a climate action plan within 12 months of becoming a signatory and submit annual reports on progress made.
To help members reach their objectives, UNWTO provides methodologies and tools to measure carbon emissions, Fernandez-Trapa explained.
The commitment to developing a climate action plan is not to be taken for granted. They know that in tourism, this area of work is pretty much-unexplored territory, she admitted.
EU taking an active part
Elena Kountoura, a Greek Member of the European Parliament who was formerly tourism minister in the government of Alexis Tsipras (2015-2019), underlined the scale of the challenge for the tourism industry.
It’s a great challenge and even greater responsibility to preserve this wealth for the future and ensure the well-being of all Med communities before it’s too late, she stated at the conference.
This only can be done if they collectively change course and assume bold actions for sustainability with clear ambitious targets and deadlines, she said.
Kountoura cited in particular two “critical” pieces of legislation that were recently adopted by the European Parliament.
The first is the regulation on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR), which sets minimum requirements for EU countries to develop refueling infrastructure for low-carbon mobility.
The other is a regulation on maritime fuels, the so-called FuelEU Maritime, adopted in October by the European Parliament, which sets greenhouse gas intensity limits for maritime fuels and obliges large ship owners to use a set percentage of green-hydrogen derived fuels by 2030.
Alongside this, the European Commission presented in February a transition pathway document co-created with the tourism sector, which encourages the industry to implement measures in 27 areas, including investments to reduce energy and waste as well as tackling water and air pollution.
The EU agenda also covers investments in skills to ensure the availability of qualified workforce, as well as improvements in data sharing across the industry to promote innovative tourism services.
If the transition to sustainability is not entirely fair, covering the needs of all groups of citizens and for all regions, a large part of the human capital, entrepreneurs, and jobs in Europe is at risk of being lost, threatening social cohesion as well, Kountoura warned.
Other EU proposals are taking shape, such as the creation an EU agency dedicated to supporting tourism on its pathway to sustainability, the Greek MEP said.
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