A decade of transformation towards greater energy efficiency and a low-carbon future lies ahead of us. The economy has a decisive role to play. And of course, TUI as a leading travel group also sees its own responsibility in this process and is taking action: we will strengthen the positive effects of tourism in the destinations and at the same time further reduce the environmental impact of travel.

Every tenth employee worldwide works in the travel and tourism industry. In many countries, tourism is the most important factor in promoting development and prosperity. It creates jobs, provides education and improves social and environmental standards. We need to preserve and develop these positive effects of tourism. At the same time, we need to significantly reduce our environmental footprint, especially CO₂ emissions. The travel and tourism industry is responsible for a total of around five percent of global CO₂ emissions.

The key question is: How can we reduce our emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement by 2030 and be a Net Zero company by 2050 at the latest? Here, we are concerned with a real reduction in emissions. Off-setting, i.e. buying certificates to compensate for emissions, is something we see as a last resort.

We will provide concrete answers with our sustainability agenda, which is being discussed intensively between the Group Executive Committee, our sustainability experts, teams in all business areas and external scientists. The new TUI sustainability agenda also considers social aspects as well as economic opportunities for the destinations and the people who live there. Three initiatives with which we are driving forward our contribution to more sustainable tourism are:

• Reducing emissions reliably: We have defined ambitious reduction plans for the three sectors of hotels, cruises and airlines, which we are having scientifically verified by the Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative - which is supported by the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), among others. In this way, we are making concrete efforts to ensure that we reduce emissions by 2030. One thing is clear: The TUI Group's CO₂ emissions must be reduced in line with the Paris Climate Agreement - demonstrably and transparently. Data, facts and scientific findings are the basis.
• Lighthouse for sustainable destinations: The sustainable transformation of our industry will only succeed if we think in terms of value chains and include the vacation destinations as true partners in our plans. With this in mind, we are developing Rhodes into a beacon for sustainable vacation destinations together with the government of the southern Aegean and local stakeholders. The Greek government is involved as well. Other destinations can later benefit from the findings on topics such as sustainable mobility, green energy, waste prevention and environmental education. 
• "Sustainability Academy“: We will open a digital "Sustainability Academy" where our employees can obtain information and further training on all aspects of sustainability. The Sustainability Academy will also be available to our hotel partners. In this way, we are promoting the sustainable transformation of numerous small or medium-sized hotels all over the world.

Already 30 years ago, TUI was a pioneer in the tourism industry with the first sustainability department. Since then, we have been working hard to reduce the environmental impact of our aircraft and cruise fleets, as well as our hotels, offices and travel agencies. This includes multi-million-dollar investments in state-of-the-art aviation and cruise technologies to reduce emissions. Key performance indicators: