climate and sustainability ‘A lot of regulation starts to bite now’


A step change in corporate sustainability reporting should begin to drive real progress on decarbonisation


THE APOCALYPTIC wildfires in Los Angeles in January, following devastating floods in Spain in late October, were a stark reminder of the increasing frequency, severity and scale of extreme weather events. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres


issued a global Call to Action on Extreme Heat in July last year, calling for “urgent international cooperation” to care for the vulnerable, protect workers, boost the resilience of economies, and limit temperature rise to 1.5C by phasing out fossil fuels. His call came after global average daily temperatures hit a record high on July 22, with Guterres noting: “Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere.” Billions face “an extreme heat epidemic”, he said, “wilting under dangerous heatwaves with temperatures topping 50 degrees around the world – halfway to boiling.” The World Meteorological Organisation


(WMO) reported 2024 was on track to be the hottest year on record and noted an accelerating rise in sea level to a rate of almost 4.8mm a year in the decade to 2023, double the rate in 1993-2002. The WMO also reported an increasing


rate of glacier loss as it announced a partnership with the International Ski and Snowboard Federation to raise awareness of the challenge to winter sports and tourism. WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo noted: “Ruined winter vacations are literally the tip of the iceberg of climate change.” A month earlier, the WMO reported greenhouse gas concentrations reached a new record in 2023, having risen more than 11% in two decades.


FIGURE 25: UK ADULTS CONCERNED ABOUT CLIMATE 2018


% of UK adults


Not at all concerned


Don’t know 1%


18% 12%


net %pt ‘not concerned’


-10 36%


particularly concerned


Not


Somewhat concerned


43%


particularly concerned


Not


Somewhat concerned


Source: CAA Consumer Survey, October 2023 Base: 3,510 UK adults


THERE has been a sharp rise in the level of concern about


the climate (Figure 25). Three in five adults think airlines or


air passengers should pay the costs of cutting flying’s impact on the environment (Figure 26)


The COP29 Climate Conference in


Baku saw representatives of developed economies agree to make $300 billion a year available to developing countries to combat the impacts of climate change, some way short of the $1.3 trillion developing countries had called for. The conference failed to agree how to


FIGURE 26:WHO SHOULD PAY COSTS OF CUTTING FLYING’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT?’ % of UK adults


environmental measures


Taxpayers 2% 8% 7% 12% 23%


Passengers, voluntarily


Government


Costs should be included in fares


Source: CAA Consumer Survey, October 2023 Base: 3,510 UK adults


38% No need for Don’t know Airlines 10%


move forward on a pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, signed at COP28. It also failed to adopt a negotiated text affirming the “importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature”. However, there was agreement on outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement on climate change, albeit nine years after it was signed and from which the US has announced its intention to withdraw. The scale of the green energy transition


required is often presented as the latest in a series of energy transitions in human history, from muscle, wind and waterpower to wood, coal and oil, in what economic historian Adam Tooze has described as a “reassuring” narrative which “suggests we have done something like this before”. In fact, Tooze notes: “The historical record shows not a neat sequence of energy transitions, but the accumulation of ever more and different types of energy . . . [and] what we are


Travel Weekly Insight Report 2025 17 15% 33% concerned Very


Not at all concerned


2023


Don’t know 1%


8%


net % pt ‘concerned’


+52 33% concerned Very


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