Current climate and environmental challenges call for a global, urgent and ambitious response.

The “European Green Deal” presented by the European Commission in December 2019 embodies a new growth strategy for the European Union, aiming for a just and prosperous society with a climate-neutral impact by 2050 and with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy.

In recent decades, the Tourism sector has experienced strong and rapid growth on a global scale and is now one of the leading economic sectors in the world, assuming a very significant importance and dimension both in Portugal and Spain, countries where the contribution of Tourism to the economic growth, job creation and even to the mitigation of asymmetries at the regional level has played a decisive role.

Being aware of the responsibility of the Tourism sector for climate change and, at the same time, of the impact it may have on the sector, it becomes urgent to adopt response mechanisms that incorporate measures for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, highlighting the growing commitment on the part of public bodies to guide investments in this sector and to ensure access to data and tools for the various interest groups that will enable them to develop their activity in a more sustained and sustainable manner.

This thematic session is intended to present:

• The contribution of Public Administration in the capacitation of the tourism sector;

• The role played by associations of the tourism sector in raising awareness on climate change issues;
• Examples of good practices in the sector, whose positive results put them on the road to achieving the goal of zero-carbon.