United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

www.unwto.org
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Focal Point: Philippe Lemaistre

The entity may not report waste data for all its personnel. Please refer to the entity's personnel chart below for more information.
All entity personnel are included in the entity's greenhouse gas emission inventory.

Secretary-General's Message

UNWTO is fully committed towards reducing and offsetting its carbon footprint. The Organization reached climate-neutrality in 2015 and has stayed there ever since. At the same time, it is important to recall that like any sector and almost any human activity, tourism has an impact on energy use. But as the world’s third-largest export category, tourism has great responsibility and potential for positive change.

"The UNWTO Secretariat will continue to work with its Members, and the sector at large, to place tourism as a leader in fighting climate change, while ensuring that our actions enhance the positive impact tourism has on socio-economic development around the world."

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General, UNWTO

Mission

UNWTO leverages its unique position as the United Nations specialized agency for tourism to unite the sector and ensure it fulfils its potential as a positive force for people and planet. UNWTO provides the tourism sector with a clear and strong voice, placing it on the agenda of governments, leading businesses and international organizations, including the wider United Nations system. At the same time as driving tourism’s recovery from adversity, UNWTO works with the public and private sector to build resilience, guarding against future shocks and guaranteeing tourism continues to be a leading contributor to the UN Sustainability Agenda and its ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

EMS AND REDUCTION EFFORTS

The COVID 19 pandemic has drastically changed the patterns in organizing events. Since March 2020, almost all events were held online, and very few could be hybrid. This has resulted in a strong reduction in air travel GHG emissions. 

In a survey conducted in 2021, UNWTO Members indicated than after the pandemic is over, online events should be maintained at around 50% of the total.

Each year, as part of the Greening the Blue Report on Environmental Governance, each participating UN entity’s progress on the development of an Environmental Management System (EMS) is evaluated according to the UN system’s EMS criteria (these criteria are available on the Methodology webpage). Upon this evaluation the entity is then rated Exceeds, Meets, Approaches, or No response. For the 2022 reporting year, UNWTO’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Does not meet.

ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS AND STANDARDS IN POLICIES, PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES

For the 2022 reporting year, UNWTO’s status of implementing environmental and social safeguards and standards in their policies, projects and programmes is: No, but in progress.

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL

For the 2022 reporting year, UNWTO’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is No.

OFFSETTING

UNWTO has been offsetting its emissions since 2015. Sufficient offsets (Gold standard) were purchased in 2019 through UNOPS in order to cover the coming years. CERs correspond to Wind Power Projects in India.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

UNWTO is using the UNEP waste management methodology.

WATER MANAGEMENT

UNWTO is using the UNEP water management methodology.  

NEXT STEPS

UNWTO will keep working with partners to estimate tourism footprint.

UNWTO, together with the International Transportation Forum (ITF) published an estimate, from a transport perspective, of the overall contribution of the tourism sector to GHG emissions, with actionable policy recommendations.

UNWTO and sustainability