New Delhi: Research published in the journal Nature Communications on Sunday suggested that 60 per cent of the growth in the world’s total tourism emissions was contributed by the United States, China and India together. The growth is calculated during the ten years of 2009 to 2019, as suggested by a report by The Conversation.
As per the report, three-quarters of total global tourism emissions are produced by just 20 countries, while the remaining 25 per cent is by 155. There is now a hundred-fold difference in per-capita tourism footprints between countries which travel most and those which travel least, the report said.
The US, which is among the top 20 tourism emitters, released the largest amount of nearly one gigatonne in 2019. The nation is responsible for 19 per cent of the total global tourism emissions, and the same is growing at an annual rate of 3.2 per cent.
In the same year, the tourism carbon emission was around 3 tonnes per resident. Thus, it became the 12th global country with the highest per capita tourism emissions.
The United Kingdom is ranked 7th in the top 20 with 128 megatonnes (2.5 per cent of the total). The rate of emissions is 2.8 tonnes per person, ranking 15th globally.
Australia ranked 14th in carbon footprint with 82 megatonnes, while its per-resident per-capita tourism carbon footprint in 2019 was 3.4 tonnes, which was 8th globally. This emphasizes the high emissions being driven by long-haul air travel for inbound and outbound international trips in Australia, the report said.
In the case of New Zealand, the per-capita tourism carbon footprint was 3.1 tonnes per resident, which was 10th in the global ranking. New Zealand also has the problem of long-haul international travel.