ABSTRACT
Climate change is increasingly recognized as a major threat to the geophysical, biological and socioeconomic stability of the planet, and there is global consensus that a maximum warming of 2°C as compared to pre-industrial temperatures should not be exceeded. As global warming is a result of the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, emissions of, in particular, CO2 as well as other greenhouse gases must be reduced. Tourism accounts for 5 per cent of global emissions of CO2 (UNWTO-UNEP-WMO 2008), and an estimated share of 5.2-12.5 per cent of the overall contribution of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to global warming (calculation for the year 2005; Scott et al. 2010). The sector has consequently
some responsibility for contributing to mitigation, specifi cally in the light of its growth, with an anticipated increase of 135 per cent over 2005 emission levels by 2035, mostly as a result of growth in air travel (UNWTO-UNEP-WMO 2008).
