Beyond ambition: a review of tourism climate change declaration outcomes and prospects from Baku

As the international community gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan at the 29th United Nations climate conference (COP-29) tourism holds a new place of prominence, being included in the host Presidency strategic agenda for the first time. The series of initiatives and high-level meetings culminated in the Baku Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism. This is the fifth such declaration by the tourism sector over the past two decades. This paper examines to what extent the tourism sector has delivered outcomes related to 38 actionable climate pledges identified in previous declarations. A visible gap exists between pledges and performance, with limited to no demonstrable progress found on 25 climate action pledges. Time is the enemy, and the tourism sector must move beyond ambition to produce results at scale to stabilize and reduce emissions and build climate resilience. The Baku Declaration, endorsed by 69 countries and 9 non-state actors, does not provide a robust programme of action to accelerate progress on past climate action pledges that have gone unfulfilled. The launch of a new UN led global partnership mechanism to catalyze climate action holds more prospect but will need to overcome barriers that led to inertia following past Declarations.