Variety Cruises decided to publicly join Tourism Declares Climate Emegency not only as a follower, but as a leader within the cruise industry, paving the way with their continued efforts.
There is still a long way to go, as the tourism industry has contributed to the global increase of carbon emissions, that is why this action is so crucial, timely and necessary. Variety Cruises sees this room for improvement as an opportunity to grow, learn, adapt and remain faithful to their promise. For instance, the pandemic took the company a step back in terms of their single use plastic policy in order to protect guests and staff from infection. Now, they have returned to their ‘no single use plastic’ rule reasserting their sustainability goals as a general policy.
Variety Cruises will be monitoring their impact on the environment with ships running on marine diesel oil, reducing plastic waste and further developing their beach clean-up initiatives, while adhering to the most stringent policies on waste management.
Like all signatories to Tourism Declares, Variety Cruises has committed to the following five actions:
1. Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ within the next 12 months, which sets out the intentions to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.
2. Share an initial public declaration of their ‘Climate Emergency Plan’, and update on progress each year.
3. Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. The company will ensure their ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per customer arising from operations and travel service partners.
4. Encourage suppliers and partners to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community.
5. Advocate for change. Recognize the need for systemic change across the industry to accelerate a just transition towards carbon-free tourism.
Tags: Variety Cruises
