Reducing carbon emissions across our operations
Climate change is recognised as the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today and is a very important issue for TUI Travel. Climate change affects our destinations and therefore our product, and we acknowledge that our business’s greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming.
In June 2009, TUI Travel completed its second submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) detailing our carbon impact, risk and opportunity, and our approach to carbon management. Read our submission here.
Regulatory impacts on tourism
For a carbon-dependent industry like leisure tourism, climate change poses significant challenges. Increasingly, business and consumers will be charged for emitting carbon as more climate change legislation comes into force whether at a national or international level. TUI Travel is monitoring and preparing for regulatory proposals on climate change that could have a fiscal impact. By addressing our carbon impacts and putting measures in place to reduce current and future carbon emissions, we are in a good position to respond to carbon legislation.
The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) aims to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. From 2012, aviation will be incorporated into the scheme, covering all flights arriving and departing the European Union. TUI Travel supports the inclusion of aviation in an EU ETS and our airlines are preparing the required monitoring and reporting methodology documentation for the regulatory body in each Member State.
National governments are also beginning to take steps to reduce carbon emissions. The UK Government has passed legislation which introduces the world’s first long-term, legally binding framework to tackle climate change. The Climate Change Bill became law on 26 November 2008. We are monitoring the next steps of this legislation with regard to the Government’s five-year carbon budgets to determine how it applies to our UK businesses.
The UK Government plans to introduce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a mandatory ‘cap and trade’ scheme aimed at reducing the energy usage of large, non-energy intensive organisations, from April 2010. TUI Travel anticipates that it will be included in the CRC and is preparing to meet its obligations under the scheme.
Physical impacts on tourism
With its close connection to the environment, tourism is sensitive to the varied impacts of a changing climate that are already becoming evident in destinations. These impacts include changes in weather patterns, such as an increase in the intensity of tropical storms and rainfall, and periods of drought which put pressure on water availability.
Sustainable biofuels
TUI Travel is a member of SAFUG (Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group), an initiative comprising a number of global airlines, founded by Boeing and UOP Honeywell in collaboration with WWF and the Natural Resources Defence Council. SAFUG aims to research and commercialise new ‘second generation’ sustainable aviation fuels with a view to reducing aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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