Climate crisis
Tui boss: More direct CO2 savings
Friedrich Joussen, CEO of the Tui Group, speaks during the general meeting of the Tui Group. Photo: Peter Steffen / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Creators of high CO2 emissions must at least contribute to the follow-up costs by purchasing pollution rights. This is not enough for many climate protectors. What does tourism say?
The largest travel company Tui wants to reduce the greenhouse gas burden in the industry more through direct savings instead of through the often criticized pollution rights.
“We focus on reduction and avoidance in the first place,” said CEO Fritz Joussen in a letter to the workforce. Buying CO2 certificates, for example, with which one’s own emissions are offset on the balance sheet or elsewhere, is only seen as a “last resort”. The manager promised: “We want a real reduction in emissions.”
Are companies buying themselves free?
Companies in various branches of industry often make do with certificate trading or with “compensation projects” such as reforestation if they are not yet able to achieve reduction targets for gases that are harmful to the climate. Above all, the trade in pollution rights has an important control function on the one hand, because at least part of the societal costs is attributed to those who cause the emissions – an instrument that has long been missing in climate policy or has only been applied to a few industries. On the other hand, some financially strong companies are accused of “buying themselves out” of real, large reductions, so to speak, through such papers.
In the automotive industry, for example, there is a real internal market in which manufacturers with a good CO2 balance pass on excess certificates to those with a poor balance at a profit. Tourism is also an industry with a large carbon footprint.
Topic at the climate summit in Glasgow
Representatives from numerous countries have been speaking about this at the world climate summit in Glasgow since this week. According to Joussen, around 5 percent of all global CO2 emissions are attributable to the travel and tourism industry – a global service industry that is also dependent on high revenues from emerging and developing countries. Air traffic, in turn, carries half of this 5 percent.
Tui has been working for a long time “to reduce the environmental impact of our activities in the areas of airlines, cruises, hotels, offices and travel agencies,” said Joussen. The CO2 and nitrogen oxide loads from ships and aircraft in the industry are particularly significant globally. Joussen warned “that we value sustainability very consciously in every business decision. Especially when it comes to innovation and investments, such as our aircraft fleet, ships or energy supply for our hotels. “
The company from Hanover is now cooperating with the “Science Based Targets” initiative. This supported Tui in drawing up the plans for climate neutrality and involving external experts. While there is no shortage of climate targets, there is often criticism of insufficiently concrete and binding implementation.