Why events can be a force for good for climate change

Global Destination Sustainability’s (GDS) recent ‘Feeling the Climate - We Take Tourism and Events’ Carbon Pulse' webinar offered destinations practical approaches to climate action from roadmap to regeneration.

Mark Stevenson, co-founder and chief Impact Officer at Cur8, a business aimed at raising the bar on carbon removals, reinforced the need for carbon removals and reiterated that the legal definition of net zero for many destinations is when the amount of carbon emissions produced are cancelled out by the amount removed.

“The only real way to get to net zero is to remove the carbon and store it somewhere safe,” he said. “Ask yourself a number of questions: how fast does the carbon come down? If you are planting trees, it will take a long time. And if it comes down, does it stay down and how easy is it to monitor? And when is your net zero target?”

Stevenson said with net zero targets needing to be achieved by 2050, investment in ways to remove carbon are needed now.

“Use the cost of removals as further incentive to reduce emission,” he said. “Work with your supply chain and customers and over time fold it into the operating model.”

Stevenson quoted the example of one caterer Cur8 works with, where carbon removals are included as part of operating costs, the same as ingredients for meals and fuels for kitchens.

Janie Neumann, senior changemaker - destination sustainability adviser at GDS and formerly sustainable tourism manager at VisitScotland, said it’s more important than ever that tourism and events step up and show how they can be part of the solution and a voice for good in the fight for climate change.

“It’s not just having a commitment, we need a roadmap,” she said. “It’s important to understand where your emissions are coming from. For destinations, when you start it’s impossible to measure everything and it can be very expensive so look where you can make a difference.”

Neumann suggested focusing on measuring activities with the biggest material impact and using emission factors for other areas where you don’t have data and where it is not readily available, as in the case of food.

“Those emissions that cannot be reduced need to be removed,” she said. “For most destinations to reach net zero, it will require reductions of about 80%-90%, many destinations might have an interim target for 2030. A lot of effort needs to go on reducing this as we don’t have sufficient carbon removal technology to remove it all.”

Neumann added that while strategy is great, destinations and events need to focus on action at scale. She pointed out key areas for tourism and events that were used during her time at VisitScotland, where achieving net zero was done by looking at energy in buildings, transport, food and drink, land use (such as reforestation) and adaptation (such as response to extreme weather events).