US, China, India lead carbon-intensive tourism

TOURISM helps reduce mental stress and rejuvenates our bodies, but it has a serious downside—its carbon-intensive activity.

- JITENDRA CHOUBEY @New Delhi

A new study shows that the global tourism landscape contributes around 9% of the total greenhouse gases (GHG), with the US, China, and India being the biggest emitters.

The study that analyzed data between 2009 and 2019 found the emission gulf between countries that travel the most and the least is almost 100-fold. India is the third highest contributor to carbon emissions from global tourism due to poor adoption of clean technology efficiency and rising demand for tourism.

Published in the scientific journal Nature, the study, ‘Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions,’ shows how the sector’s emissions increased by 3.5% annually between 2009 and 2019, double that of the worldwide economy emission rate. Tourism’s emission increased by 1.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (Gt CO2-e)—from 3.7 Gt to 5.2 Gt CO2-e. It equals the annual emissions produced by all Latin America and the Caribbean countries.

The increase is primarily due to the rise in demand for domestic tourism. Here, China is at the top, followed by the US and India. There is a noteworthy rise in outbound travel from China as well.