Worldwide tourism accounted for 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions from 2009 to 2013, new research published in Nature Climate Change finds, making the sector a bigger polluter than the construction industry. The study, which looks at the spending habits of travellers in 160 countries, shows that the impact of tourism on global emissions could be four times larger than previously thought and that it may threaten the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement. The research finds that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s annual global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, attributed to increased demand for goods and services. However, the results may still be underestimating the total carbon footprint of tourism as they do not consider the impact of non-CO2 emissions from the aviation industry.

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Carbon Brief