The company’s global environment impact manager, Susanne Etti, spoke to TTG after attending Cop27 in Egypt last week. 

"The role of women is really important when it comes to the industry’s sustainability goals," Etti said. "Ongoing women empowerment and inclusiveness to ensure our global decarbonisation agenda has equality at its core is crucial.

"The signs are very clear. We all continue to have our feet on the accelerators towards the goal – but I agree, if we are to meet the 2050 net-zero targets, we need to do more." 

According to Etti, the tourism industry contributes between 8% and 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, placing the sector "at the forefront of the climate emergency".

"We’re not doing enough," she added. "Last year was a huge highlight of that, when the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism was launched."

In 2020, Intrepid Travel became one of the first tour operators to implement an in-house carbon reduction target. "But we are still only seeing a few companies in the travel and tourism industry actually having a way to measure reductions," Etti added. "And that’s exactly the point, we need to do more."

She urged the industry to "really step it up" by signing the Glasgow Declaration and implementing a way to measure carbon reduction and output.

"We must take our footprint into consideration, just think of the severe weather extremes we have seen recently, the droughts across Europe with the heatwave, or a third of Pakistan being under water," she said.

However, despite the call for further action, Etti commended travel companies and destinations which continue to implement new sustainability policies. 

"There’s definitely progress across the industry and it is so important to highlight that, as well as having a voice at Cop27," she continued.

"We are seeing more companies committing to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), so there’s definitely optimism. There’s some great examples out there from a destination level, tour operators and accommodation providers."

On Monday (14 November), a report by the Travel Foundation concluded that current strategies which rely solely on carbon offsetting, technological efficiencies and biofuels are "woefully inadequate", and will fail to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Etti agreed with the report, and said Intrepid will continue to work with suppliers and partners to drive their sustainability goals. 

"I will continue to advocate a joint approach to decarbonisation by showing other businesses how they can do it too, as the focus has to be radical collaboration," she added.