Abstract
The United Nations has declared climate change a code-red for humanity and the 2020s the decisive decade to avoid dangerous climate disruption. The 26(th) Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, Scotland represents a milestone event and potentially the last chance to keep the Paris Climate Agreement 1.5 degrees C policy goal within reach. The tourism sector has responded to this critical moment by releasing the Glasgow Declaration: A Commitment to a Decade of Tourism Climate Action. As the third such declaration over 20 years, this paper asks whether it brings the sector closer to an action agenda commensurate with the climate emergency the sector has declared. While the Glasgow Declaration includes some positive advances, we find few themes and recommended actions that were not introduced in previous declarations over a decade ago and inaction on several past recommendations. There is no evidence that the declarations have altered the growth trajectory of sector emissions or influenced the integration of climate change into tourism policy and planning. The climate crisis demands a sectoral response no less than that to the Covid-19 pandemic, and we find the Glasgow Declaration ill-equipped to stimulate the systemic change required by the net-zero transition and accelerating changes in climate.