The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announces the launch of a Net Zero Roadmap for the Travel & Tourism sector to support the industry in combatting climate change during its virtual climate week event.

It also announced the launch of ground-breaking social and environmental research data. The first time such data will be produced across the whole sector, building on WTTC’s annual high-anticipated Economic Impact Report (EIR).

These vital pieces of work represent WTTC’s biggest deliverables in the sector’s drive towards net zero by 2050.

The powerful initiative is being run in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and professional services and consulting experts, Accenture.

WTTC made the announcement at its virtual ‘Net Zero Travel & Tourism - From Ambition to Action’ event, during annual Climate Week NYC.

The Net Zero Roadmap will include a status quo overview of climate actions in Travel & Tourism, direct lessons learned from the past 18 months, and will include action frameworks for specific industries to help accelerate climate commitments and emissions reduction.

WTTC will regularly monitor and update this climate action inventory research, providing continuous updates until the Travel & Tourism sector’s targets are achieved.

During the virtual event, which was sponsored by IHG, participants discussed the sustainability challenges the Travel & Tourism sector faces, along with the creation of the way forward in the sector’s quest to become net zero.

The interactive session included remarks by Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, representatives for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Arnold Donald, WTTC Chair and President and CEO of Carnival Corporation, Elie Maalouf, Chief Executive Officer Americas, IHG, Alex Zozaya, Chairman of Apple Leisure Group, and Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Global CEO of JLL Hotels and Hospitality among others.