Study: U.S., China and India drive surge in global tourism emissions
THE U.S, CHINA and India drove 60 percent of the growth in tourism emissions from 2009 to 2019, according to Nature Communications. By 2019, they accounted for 39 percent of global tourism emissions. The research, based on data from 175 governments between 2009 and 2020, found that 20 countries drive nearly all global tourism emissions, with efforts to curb the trend proving ineffective. The emissions are generated by airplanes and vehicles used for travel to tourist destinations along with power consumption by travelers. Around 20 countries generate 75 percent of global tourism emissions, while 155 countries share the remaining 25 percent, the study found. There is now a hundredfold gap in per-capita tourism footprints between the most and least traveled nations.