Towards a Fair and Low Carbon Tourism: Perspectives from Spain

About the Event:

Tourism has positioned itself as one of the main engines of the Spanish economy, but the current crisis of COVID-19 – as the economic crisis of 2008 did before – has shown the fragility of the sector and has called into question the high dependence of the GDP on this activity. The pandemic should serve as an opportunity to seek alternatives to make tourism resilient to new economic, health and climate crises.

Tourism is also a sector that not only produces serious climatic and environmental impacts but these, in turn, affect it negatively. Water shortages, reduced climatic comfort, the loss of beaches or an increase in extreme weather events are some of the effects of global warming with direct consequences on tourism activity and which can seriously compromise its viability.

We should take advantage of the lessons learned during the pandemic to rethink a paradigm shift, a shift towards a fair, low-carbon tourism model that is prepared to face the major climate, economic and social challenges of our time and that is sustainable in the long term. Are we prepared for this?

Context:

This event is part of the Green European Foundation’s Fair and Carbon Free Tourism transnational project. This project aims to identify and create conditions for collective action against the detrimental social and environmental impacts of tourism. In many countries, tourism is a generator of GDP and fully employed in a growth oriented consumerist economy. However, there is an underestimated environmental and social impact of tourism.

Speakers:

• Javier Benayas: Professor of Ecology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and member of the Advisory Council of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development. Town Planning and Sustainability Councilor in Soto del Real (Madrid).
• Karima Delli: French MEP from the Greens/EFA group. Chair of the Committee on Transport and Tourism. In 2016 she was appointed vice-chair of the Commission of Inquiry into the Measurement of Emissions from Cars (the so-called Dieselgate).
• Aurora Pedro Bueno: Director of the New Green Transition Chair at the University of Valencia. Consultant for the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) since the mid-1990s and author of several publications on Tourism topics.

Moderator: Rosa M. Tristán, environmental and scientific journalist with 30 years of professional experience in different media (El Mundo, El HuffPost, El País, Público, RNE, …).

Practicalities:

Thursday, 3 December, 18:00-19:30

This is an online event, please register in advance via this link.

Simultaneous Spanish-English translation will be available.

—-

This event is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Fundación Transición Verde and with the financial support of the European parliament to the Green European Foundation