Mirabilia & Ecotrans: Glasgow Declaration
GLASGOW DECLARATION: CO-ORDINATED CLIMATE PLAN DEMOSTRATION PROJECT
This climate action project is measuring the carbon footrint of the Travel and Tourism SMEs in a multi-level demonstration exercise. It has been funded by the Mirabilia Chambers of Commerce network, involving at the global level UNEP's Resouce Efficiency tool, at the European level the EU's Climate Pact Ambassador working with the COSME European Tourism Going Green 2030 project in three countries at the national level - Bulgaria, Croatia and Italy, focused on specific regions to reach local level actors - ie the Tourism SMEs themselves to measure their operational carbon footprints.
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Coordinator: Dr Cinzia de Marzo
Under the umbrella of the EU Climate Pact initiatives promoted by the EU Climate Pact Ambassador Dr Cinzia De Marzo, such as organizing EU side events to COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021, Mirabilia Chambers of Commerce Network and the Ecotrans European Network for Sustainable Tourism Development have joined their efforts to implement the Glasgow Declaration on Tourism in this demonstration Climate Action Plan project..
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Project Background
In November 2021, the Mirabilia network and Ecotrans co-promoted an EU side event to UN Climate Change Conference COP26, endorsed by the European Commission- DGCLIMA - on the topic ‘Sustainable tourism as a driver to achieving global climate neutrality’. Mirabilia and Ecotrans both signed the Glasgow Declaration for climate action in tourism, to support the global commitment for the sector to halve emission by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 and to establish co-ordinated collaboration at transnational level in Europe (focusing in Italy, Croatia and Bulgaria), for sharing solutions and setting up a common European framework for climate action.
Integrated Policy to Implement the Glasgow Declaration - Alignment to 5 Common Pathways
The collabration between the Mirabilia network and Ecotrans represents a multi-level climate and tourism dialogue and it shows a strong cohérence across EU policies with the climate neutrality objective.
As a demonstration project, the action to measure the carbon footprint of 50 tourism businesses in thre countries will contribute to developing a blueprint for multi-stakeholder implemntation actions involving:
- Measuring, (including reporting and verification based on a proven set of GHG emission indicators to be collected on voluntary basis)
- Decarbonise (delivering targets to accelerate tourism decarbonisation in accommodation and food and drink
- Regenerate (help visitors and host communities experience better balance with the nature)
- Collaborate (estabishing synergies among key tourism stakeholders, sharing existing tools such green tourism supply chain system)
- Finance (preliminary self financing/investment by the Chambers of Commerce involved as part of Mirabilia network ; identify financial sources such as National Recovery and Resilience Plans -NRRP 2021-2026, under the EU Next Generation fund, to support the SMEs engagement, coordination and training activities)
Project Work Programme - Road Map of the Climate Action Plan
The project has carried out the following work to date:
May – June 2022
- Ecotrans Identified and chose a well suited assessment system for GHG emissions hotels, camping, holiday houses, tour operators (ETGG2030 - SME categories/NACE codes 55.10, 55.20, 55.30, 79) - UNEP's Resource Efficiency Tool.
- iThe tool was then prepared to be nternationally applicable in order to comparing results, monitor and benchmark SME sustainability performance. HTis was translated in national languages.
- Provide the GHG measuring system as online tool – integrated with the ETGG2030 tools for SMEs (for self-assessment) & Experts (for verification) Ecotrans in agreement with the chosen tool
July - October 2022
- Mirabilia has been working with ETGG203 partners to agree with their CoCs covering the ETGG2030 70 SMEs and their expert coaches to apply the tool as part of the SME sustainability pre-assessment.
- Apply the GHG assessment tool to up to 50 SMEs for assessment & verification by the Experts
- Ecotrans will analyse the results, identify good practices and success factors with the Experts
- Ecotrans + Mirabilia will produce a final report and options for the next steps for upscaling the demonstration project.
- Ecotrans + Mirabilia will prepare the presentation for COP27 in November 2022 in Egypt to contribute to the results of last years' landmark meeting.
On the Ground - Demonstration Action on Carbon Footprinting
In view of the coming COP27 foreseen in Egypt in November 2022, Ecotrans and Mirabilia will present the preliminary results of the measuring climate impact among several tourist SMES across Italy, Croatia and Bulgaria, using UNEP Resource Efficiency tool, aiming at sustainable transformation of the tourism value chain. The partnership among the above-mentioned organizations is based in Italy and Germany, established in the framework of SDG17 of the UN Agenda 2030, as a concrete example of collaborative action to implement the SDGs.
In Italy, Mirabilia will involve the 15 selected enterprises as a pilot test, with the support of the Chambers of Commerce of Udine-Pordenone and Asset Basilicata, in order to collect the information related to the GHG emissions. Mirabilia will follow also the process in Croatia and Bulgaria, where the ETGG2030 project partners, are also affiliated to Mirabilia European network.
Ecotrans will support the assessment of the ETGG2030 SME Call applicants in Italy (15 selected + 27 applicants), Croatia (11 selected + 8 applicants) and Bulgaria (11 selected + 3 applicants), providing a common framework for analysing the results and benchmarking among the pilot tests.
The experts engaged for ETGG2030 EU project, will collaborate to ensure the data collection among the 75 tourist SMEs and to draft the presentation of the final report to be presented during COP27 in November 2022.
You can find UNEP's Resource Efficiency tool at:
A list of experts using the RE tool will be developed to support SMEs who would like help to measure thei carbon footprint.
READ THE FINAL PROJECT REPORT HERE!
