The growth in international tourist arrivals has raised concerns over climate change. According to a report, it is estimated that 5% of global CO2 emissions were caused by tourism. Recognising the importance of inter-linkages between tourism and climate change the UN World Tourism Organisation’s Assembly rightly declared the theme of last year’s World Tourism Day 27 September, 2008, as “Tourism Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change”, whose main focus was on assessing the interrelationship of climate change and tourism. There is always conflict between hosts (local people) and guests (tourists) regarding the sharing of resources. This calls for change in the behaviour and attitude of both hosts and guests. To the tourists change in the behaviour and attitude for the sake of environment is not as much important as in the case of local people. The onus falls on hosts to show more maturity and sensible approach towards the environment.

Requirement of the day is ‘Green Attitude’. In developing countries they tend to blame all ills squarely on the government, while they are reluctant to develop Green Attitude. Green attitude is how responsible one is towards environment and how much it reflects on people’s daily activities. Hotels, lodges, restaurants and others daily require gallons of water, which is already scarce. Rainwater collection mechanism should be adopted which can be efficiently used in hotels, lodges and restaurants. To start with, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City should mandatorily enforce rainwater collection mechanism installed in newly built houses and provide economic incentives along with technical assistance through local NGOs. Street lights should be powered through solar energy. Fuel-efficient or hybrid cars should be encouraged. For example, with 1.5 million Toyota hybrid cars on the road today, global carbon dioxide emissions have been effectively reduced by about 7 million tons.

Developing countries need much more money and resources to adapt to climate change. UN resources for climate adaptation are badly under-funded. Oxfam believes that about $50 billion is needed globally to help developing countries to “climate proof” their societies and economies. Recently the government of UK has pledged $133m to Bangladesh to help it prepare for the impact of climate change. The money will go into measures such as protecting houses, schools and farms against flooding, and introducing new crop strains.

Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has declared his commitment for $3 billion from his Virgin empire to the development of alternative-energy sources. He has also announced a $25 million prize for anyone who can devise a way to clear existing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. There is an urgent need from the richest countries to establish an “Environment Fund.” This stresses the need for financial and technical assistance for developing countries to help them cope with climate change. The fund should be an instrument of collective action to support infrastructure, technology transfer, facilitate financing, capacity enhancement to cope with climate change. Any tourism plan should strive to accommodate the needs of its people that depend on the valuable resources which is fast depleting.