carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

The 2012 London Olympic flame is going to carbon neutral. A spokeswomen for London 2012 commented: “We want London 2012 to be a truly sustainable Games. Using a low-carbon fuel to light the Olympic flame and keep it burning throughout the Games is one of the many things we are looking at right now to deliver a ‘green games’.” London 2012 are currently trying to source a suitable fuel!

“Youth travellers care about the environment. They are looking for solutions that will help them balance their passion for travel, with their desire to minimise the environmental impact of their travel. The youth travel industry can provide young travellers with solutions to this dilemma. As part of WYSE Travel Confederation’s ‘Climate Change and Youth Travel’ Initiative, a series of ready-made tools and templates have been designed to assist specialist youth travel organisations in educating customers and providing solutions. By using these tools, your organisation can make a difference and help young travellers answer the burning ‘questions of conscience’ confronting our industry and our world.” Click here to read the guide.

The Economist has published an interesting article on climate change (it’s a premium content article so you’ll need to pay to view all of it).

A really interesting set of notes which accompany a presentation by David Key a director of Footprint Consulting.

Tourism in Scotland produces the equivalent of some 13.7 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.  In terms of development one key objective is to increase the value of tourism in Scotland by 50% by 2015.   Now companies operating in the tourism sector have an opportunity to offset their CO2 emissions via Climate Change Scotland a service which has been developed by the Tourism Innovation Group.  Interestingly, all of the carbon offset projects supported by Climate Change Scotland are actually based in Scotland.

The Guardian has published a short overview of the different climate change policies of the Labour, Conservatives and Liberal parties.

Labour - cut CO2 by 60% by 2050

Conservatives cut  CO2 by 80% by 2050

Liberals - cut CO2 by 60% by 2050 (though maybe more)

Qantas Airways, Australia’s leading airline now offer passengers the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions.  A number of Australian ‘Ambassadors’ and celebrities have pledged their support to reduce their carbon footprint and ‘fly carbon neutral’ including Greg Norman and Ian Thorpe.

Carbon offset projects selected by Qantas have to meet Government requirements to be eligible for Greenhouse Friendly^TM accreditation.

A really interesting site - want to find out how long it takes different countries to produce 1,000 of CO2 visit Breathing Earth.

Zac Goldsmith is interviewed in today’s Sunday Times on climate change.

Loose Fit are a surf shop based in Braunton (UK) have strong environmental credentials. One of the many schemes they operate include planting over 200 trees in the last 12 months which have absorbed over 180 tonnes of carbon dioxide!   They