With the world’s leaders gathered at COP26, Intrepid Travel’s co-founder and chairman Darrell Wade is championing travel industry-wide climate change commitments in Glasgow, while we’re releasing a comprehensive measurement guide to empower other tour operators to decarbonise their operations.
It’s not every day that you get to join the world’s leaders, scientists and climate advocates to commit to real action to address the climate crisis, but that’s exactly what Intrepid Travel is doing in Glasgow at the historic COP26 conference.
With our co-founder and chairman Darrell Wade in attendance at the conference and representing the broader tourism industry, we’re using this moment to rally the travel industry to commit to urgent climate action.
Pre-pandemic, travel and tourism contributed about 8 per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Now, for the first time, the Glasgow Declaration brings the entire tourism industry together with a shared vision and commitment for action on climate change and industry-wide decarbonisation. More than 400 tourism businesses have already committed to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible before 2050.
We’re proud to be a signatory and launch partner to the Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism.
And, we’re also providing resources to help other tourism businesses to decarbonise, with the release of a 25-page carbon measurement toolkit at COP26. This aims to empower other tour operators to measure the impact they’re having on the planet.
Our new open-source guide will empower any tour operator to start measuring their business’ and their supply chain’s carbon footprint. Our guide is authored by Intrepid’s Environmental Impact Specialist Dr Susanne Etti and produced in partnership with Tourism Declares, a collective of nearly 400 travel businesses, organisations and individuals who have declared a climate emergency and committed to taking action to decarbonise.
“You can’t reduce what you don’t measure and there are few travel companies that really understand the impact they’re having on the planet,” said Dr Etti.
Measurement is a key part of our seven-step climate commitment plan published in January 2020, and we’re the first (and only) global tour operator with a verified target through the Science Based Targets initiative.
“We wanted to create a science-led tool to move the needle on decarbonisation. We cannot solve the climate crisis alone and this type of industry-wide collaboration is critical,” added Dr Etti.
Intrepid Travel has been on its carbon journey since 2005 but climate change is a collective responsibility and cannot be achieved by one company or industry. For that reason, in the run up to COP26, we have stepped up action with partners, B Corps and other businesses over the past year to advocate for stronger government policies on climate change, including:
- The global We Mean Business Coalition alongside 600+ corporations, which have committed to halve emissions by 2030, in line with creating an net-zero economy in line with a 1.5°C future.
- The WWF-Australia Renewables Nation campaign, which calls on the Australian Government to support a renewables-led recovery.
- The Climate Act Now campaign in Australia, which supports a proposed law to ensure the long-term safety, security and prosperity of Australia by achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
