Our Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism

Just as we have evolved over the past twenty years, so have the discussions around sustainability, climate change, and what it means to be a responsible traveller. We understand that we have to act now to achieve sustainability, if we are going to be able to continue doing what we love and ensure a promising future for the next generation.

We are therefore delighted that we become a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. Through this exciting new initiative and our ongoing commitment to supporting the ambitions of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically those relating to education, gender equality and climate action (SDGs 4, 5 and 13), we can continue to pave the way in creating a future of sustainable and responsible tourism.

What is the Glasgow Declaration?

The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism unites travel and tourism behind a common set of pathways for climate action, aligning the sector with global commitments and catalysing collaborative solutions to the many challenges facing businesses and destinations globally. The Glasgow Declaration encourages the acceleration of climate action in tourism by securing commitments to reduce emissions in tourism by at least 50% over the next decade and achieve Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050. This is what is necessary in order to ensure a rise of no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

More specifically, our signature of the Glasgow Declaration pledges our commitment to:

1. Deliver a climate action plan within 12 months of signing.
2. Report publicly both progress against interim and long-term targets, as well as the actions being taken, at least annually.
3. Align our plan with five shared pathways (measure, decarbonise, regenerate, collaborate, finance) to ensure climate action is consistent across all of tourism.
4. Share information on activities connected to Tourism Declares and/or the Glasgow Declaration among contacts and networks.
5. Work in a collaborative and constructive spirit with other members of Tourism Declares and/or signatories of the Glasgow Declaration.

By becoming a signatory, we are committing to the Declaration’s overall aim of reducing reliance on carbon- and material-intensive ways of delivering visitor experiences’ and instead, prioritising community and ecosystem wellbeing. An urgent need that we are all too familiar with as part of our ongoing dedication to delivering school expeditions with sustainable impact for communities, wildlife and the environment over the past twenty years.

Reducing our Carbon Footprint

We believe that the most important and effective way to reduce our carbon footprint is for people to make lifelong changes to the way they live – to reduce their carbon footprint today, not in 40 years’ time, and develop lifelong habits. We are in the very fortunate position of having thousands of young people travel with us every year and their experiences at our camps are often life changing.  With Us, those young people are able to see the effects of climate change first-hand and gain an understanding of the impact that these changes are having on rural communities and in highly sensitive environments.

As part of Camps International’s mission to ensure the company is doing everything within its power to reduce their climate impact they have also have recently launched their Responsible Traveller Training programme to further educate all young people that travel with them, to do their part towards combating climate change.

For more information on the Camps International Climate Policy please visit the link below:

Climate Action Policy