World Travel Market’s World Responsible Tourism Day (WRTD) 2015 will tackle the issue of climate change weeks before it is discussed by the United Nations to achieve the first legally binding agreement in 20 years.
WRTD – the largest day of global responsible tourism action – takes place on Wednesday 4 November, weeks before the world’s leaders gather in Paris at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss how to reduce greenhouse gas emission to limit the global temperate increase to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The November 30 –December 11UN conference aims to succeed where the same event in Copenhagen failed in 2009, by reaching a global consensus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
WRTD will kick off with a keynote address from controversial Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester (pictured).
Anderson, who is also Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, advises the Prime Minister’s office on carbon trading and has contributed to the development of the UK’s Climate Change Act.
He believes the UNCC’s objective is “just” about possible “if we deliver a radical reduction in energy consumption now”. However, he believes “we have done nothing about climate change for the past 25 years”.
Following Anderson’s keynote address will be a panel debate, chaired by BBC journalist Stephen Sackur, where he will be joined by senior industry executives, and Anderson, to discuss how the travel industry can help in the reduction of greenhouse gasses.
The afternoon’s content concludes with the carbon debate – where the motion The tourism industry could do much more to take responsibility for reducing carbon emissions will be hotly contested.
World Travel Market, Senior Director, Simon Press said: “The United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris has the potential to have a significant impact on the travel industry.
“With World Travel Market taking places weeks before the conference we can help set the agenda by discussing climate change and the role the travel industry can play in addressing the issue.
“Kevin Anderson is a highly respected speaker on the climate change and will present to delegates a thought-provoking, controversial and potential worrying picture of where the world is on tackling climate change.”
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About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 52,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, now in its 36th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals. WTM 2014 will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.
World Travel Market is part of Reed Travel Exhibition’s WTM portfolio, which also includes Arabian Travel Market, World Travel Market Latin America and World Travel Market Africa. www.wtmworld.com
WTM Portfolio
The World Travel Market Portfolio is comprised of the leading leisure travel events in the world; World Travel Market in London, WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo, WTM Africa in Cape Town and Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
The WTM Portfolio’s events are attended by the global travel and tourism industry’s senior executives to conduct business deals and discover the latest research, insight and opinion.
In 2014, the WTM Portfolio facilitated around $7 billion in industry deals from negotiations between the more than 15,000 buyers, 9,500 exhibitors (1,500 main stand holders and 8,000 stand sharers) in attendance of its four events.
WTM is owned by the worldʼs leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions.
About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.