At the TRENZ Tourism Conference in Wellington this Thursday, supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa will hold banners, hand out leaflets and speak through megaphones to protest luxury emissions, greenwashing, and the free ride that the tourism industry’s international emissions get.

“TRENZ’s claims about sustainability are just greenwashing unless they start calling for international shipping and aviation emissions to be included in our government’s emission targets” said Frank Preddey, Climate Liberation Aotearoa spokesperson. “The industry has so far been silent on this. There’s still time for them to step up. We challenge industry leaders to submit to the Climate Change Commission asking for effective regulation, rather than continuing the loopholes. Until the industry takes responsibility for cleaning up the industry, they will face increasing disruption from the people of Aotearoa who want better than greenwashing about 2050 targets or carbon credits.”

TRENZ is New Zealand’s largest international tourism business event, bringing hundreds of international travel buyers to New Zealand to meet with leading tourism operators. “Most of the conversations at this conference are about doing more, increasing tourist numbers, and competing for more market share. They’re ignoring the fact that as tourism numbers go up, emissions go up, and that currently as a nation we’re not taking responsibility for those emissions” said Preddey.

“The parliamentary commissioner for the environment and the NZ Tourism Taskforce’s reports have taken seriously the need for real sustainable tourism, but these reports have largely been ignored by the cruise industry, Tourism New Zealand, airports, and airlines who seem to be happy to keep greenwashing. In fact, despite the high value and environmental impact of the tourism industry, there currently isn’t even a National Tourism Strategy!” said Preddey.

“If Tourism Industry Aotearoa wants to brand itself as sustainable, they’d better be prepared to do the work. That means promoting forms of tourism that are less wasteful, produce less emissions, and are less harmful to Aotearoa’s native environment. In the meantime, they’re not going to know a moment of peace.” Said Preddey.

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