World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit 2022 announced the launch of environmental and social research related to the climate footprint of the global travel and tourism sector. This came during the 22nd WTTC Global Summit, which is organized by WTTC in cooperation with the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC) in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Environmental and social research includes 185 countries on all continents of the world, which is the first of its kind at the international level, and its data will be updated annually with the latest statistics, and it includes measures that monitor the impact of the sector on a set of indicators, including pollutants, energy sources and water use, in addition to social and age data, and gender wages in jobs related to the travel and tourism sector, and as a result of this research governments around the world will have a tool to guide their decision-making process, and accelerate the process of environmental change more accurately. In her opening speech, WTTC President and CEO Julia Simpson announced the findings of the Environmental and Social Research (ESR), which is one of the largest research projects, and WTTC will be able to provide accurate reports and track the impact of the various activities of the sector on the environment. She explained that the travel and tourism sector is making great strides in the process of decarbonization, stressing the focus on increasing the production of sustainable aviation fuel with the support of government incentives, and also on the greater use of renewable energy in the national public electrical networks so that "We promote the use of sustainable energy in hotel rooms." She also indicated that the sector's share of the carbon footprint, which amounts to 8.1%, can be affected by becoming more efficient and separating the growth rate from the amount of energy consumed starting today, stressing that every decision and every step towards change will lead to a better and brighter future for all. For his part, the Saudi Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khateeb expressed his happiness for the participation of WTTC in this important research that will follow the impact of activities in the future, stressing that the Kingdom realizes that travelers and investors want policies that enhance sustainability in the sector and that the Kingdom has embarked on a stage that makes it a leading country in field of sustainable tourism. He also said, "Within the framework of the Saudi Green Initiative, we launched more than 60 initiatives last year to achieve this goal, of which the first batch was represented by investments in the green economy with a value of more than $186 billion."
