In 2021 I worked on a research that critically reviewed tourism-relevant advances in climate science and tourism policy in the Australasia region over the past 20 years, focusing particularly on the seven years (2015–2021) since the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
Both Australia and New Zealand are dependent upon stable climates for tourism but they also contribute disproportionately to high tourism greenhouse gas emissions. Both are economically reliant on their respective tourism industries, which market environmental products and experiences to predominantly long-haul tourism markets.
In this project we reviewed tourism systems, climate risks and carbon risks in the region and reported upon the (dis)connection of climate change and tourism policy at the national scale in the region. At the time of publication in early 2023 it was clear that serious deficiencies in the climate science – tourism policy context continues to be the case, and this is a barrier to transforming the tourism systems of Australia and New Zealand in response to climate change.
Higham, J.E.S., Loehr, J., Hopkins, D., Becken, S. & Stovall, W. (2022). Climate science and tourism policy in Australasia: Deficiencies in science-policy translation. Journal of Sustainable Tourism http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2022.2134882
