One Planet
Mainstreaming sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in tourism offers multiple opportunities to advance sustainability across other sectors.
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme is currently guided by the Global Strategy for Sustainable Consumption and Production 2023-2030 which identifies tourism as a key sector to accelerate sustainability across the multiple stages of its value chain.
SCP is about fulfilling the needs of all while using fewer natural resources, including energy and water and producing less waste and pollution. SCP aims at promoting resource efficiency and sustainable practices for the industry as well as the consumers. UN Environment (2015)
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme aims to accelerate sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in tourism policies and practices to address the challenges of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. It supports the integration of circular economy principles and practices as a pathway to decouple tourism operations from environmental degradation and build resilience.
Through its work, the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme sets the SCP agenda in the tourism sector to advance the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 and also delivers progress under connected goals such as SDG13, SDG14 and SDG15, respectively on climate action and the protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme is one of the six programmes of the One Planet network and started operating in February 2015.
By leading the implementation of the Programme, UN Tourism has supported translating the complexity of SCP into actionable areas for tourism stakeholders, bringing added value to more than 700 members, and generating dialogue between environment and tourism stakeholders. The Programme has also positioned circularity as a key strategy to accelerate climate action in tourism as well as the blue economy.
The implementation of activities under the One Planet network is currently guided by the Global Strategy on Sustainable Consumption and Production 2023-2030 which identifies tourism as a high impact sector and calls for its transformation towards climate neutral, nature supportive and pollution free operations. The Global Strategy was welcomed by the UN General Assembly in December 2022 (see Resolution A/RES/77/162).
AREAS OF INTERVENTION
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme operates as a multi-stakeholder partnership that promotes knowledge sharing and networking and provides guidance and recommendations to address collective priorities.
The Programme currently focuses on three main areas of intervention:
- Accelerating climate action in tourism.
The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism presents a unified framework for tourism stakeholders to accelerate climate action and contribute to the achievement of the goals set in the Paris Agreement. The Declaration operates as a voluntary commitment where signatories commit to support the global goals of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving Net Zero by 2050 at the latest; to develop climate action plans aligned with five pathways: measure, decarbonize, regenerate, collaborate and finance; to report on an annual basis on progress achieved; and to work in a collaborate spirit to ensure knowledge transfer and scale-up impacts.
- Building a circular economy of plastics in tourism
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution. The initiative supports the readiness of tourism vis à vis the upcoming international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The initiative operates as a voluntary commitment where signatories commit to eliminate problematic and unnecessary plastics, to introduce reuse models or reusable alternatives; to foster collaboration with suppliers and waste managers; and to report on progress on an annual basis, with the aim to shift to a circular economy of plastics in tourism.
- Transforming food value chains in tourism
The Global Roadmap for Food Waste Reduction in Tourism is a new framework that aims at promoting the uptake of food waste reduction strategies by tourism stakeholders to enhance the contribution of the sector to sustainable food systems. The Roadmap supports the implementation of SDG12.3 and aims to raise awareness among tourism stakeholders of the opportunities deriving from a more sustainable and circular management of food, with special emphasis on reducing food waste as a cost-effective and environmentally responsible strategy.
JOIN the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme through committing to
the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and/or the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative.
To support the recovery from COVID-19, the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme released the One Planet Vision for a Responsible Recovery of Tourism calling for a recovery which is founded on the sustainability, to build back better and underpin the resilience of tourism.
On an annual basis, the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme reports on progress and the collective achievement of its members. These contributions are used to prepare the official report to the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
ANNUAL REPORTS
The reports to the HLPF provide yearly updates on the collective progress made by the members of the six programmes in the One Planet network. The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme has been contributing to these reports since 2016. All the reports are guided by the monitoring and evaluation framework provided by the Indicators of Success of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
| Annual Report of the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme | Annual Report of the One Planet network to the HLPF | |
| 2022 | Annual Programme Reporting 2022 | ECOSOC E/2023/72 |
| 2021 | Annual Programme Reporting 2021 | ECOSOC E/2022/56 |
| 2020 | Annual Programme Reporting 2020 | ECOSOC E/2021/56 |
| 2019 | Annual Programme Reporting 2019 | ECOSOC E/2019/64 |
| 2018 | Annual Programme Reporting 2018 | ECOSOC E/2018/60 |
| 2017 | Annual Programme Reporting 2017 | ECOSOC E/2017/63 |
| 2016 | Annual Programme Reporting 2016 | ECOSOC E/2016/62 |
PROGRESS:
To stay updated of ongoing activities, events, research, as well as to access the repositories of tools and resources, please visit here.
The One Planet Network communicates the progress and updates from all the six programmes on a monthly basis. Access the newsletters here.
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Sustainability on the Frontline of Online Education
A new series of online training sessions for hospitality businesses, focusing on community engagement, energy and greenhouse gases, as well as food and water management, has been developed by Booking.com in collaboration with UN Tourism.
click here for further information on the One Planet Network
CONTACT THE ONE PLANET SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PROGRAMME: oneplanetstp@unwto.org