Transforming tourism for climate resilience
The Climate Change Action cluster brings together tourism and climate change experts who aim to help tourism businesses, destinations, governments, and regional organisations to reduce climate change risk. This outcome is achieved by decarbonising tourism-related operations in line with the Paris Agreement and successfully adapting to mitigate the increasing impact of climate change.
Cluster Lead: Dr Johanna Loehr
Sustainable Development Goals
Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and committed to creating sustainable cities and communities and tackling global challenges around climate action, life below water, and life on land.
Our expertise
Our researchers have expertise in:
- Carbon footprint analysis: We comprehensively analyse destinations and recommend carbon footprint mitigation strategies.
- Impact assessment: We assess tourism’s vulnerability to climate change impacts and provide recommendations to address them.
- Policy and governance analysis: We evaluate the integration of tourism and climate change policies and how to improve them.
- Climate change governance: We analyse tourism governance effectiveness to address climate change, including the enabling environment.
- Climate change strategies: We identify climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that help balance the impact of tourism on the environment and broadly contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Climate Change Action cluster members actively participate in international science review panels such as the Executive Board of the Tourism Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their works inform policy recommendations and contribute to advancing science-based climate action across the global tourism system.
Examples of recent projects include:
- Co-developing just adaptation for urban tourism.
- Calculating carbon emissions and development of future emission scenarios for some Australian destinations.
- Co-develop a Pacific Regional Tourism & Climate Change Action Plan.
- Leveraging the tourism sector’s role in locally led restoration efforts to accelerate climate and biodiversity action.
- Building climate resilience with Pacific Island tourism destinations.
- Developing climate action plans for two Queensland destinations.
- Investigating the integration of justice in national climate change policies.
Identifying regenerative approaches for climate action in tourism. - Investigating VR/AR technology applications for regenerative tourism.
- Investigating optimisation of regional tourism destinations.
Our researchers
- Professor Susanne Becken
- Yi Bian
- Andrew Buckwell
- Professor Christopher Fleming
- Assoc Prof Patrick Fong
- Megan French
- Professor James Higham
- Dr Yaiwei Jiang
- Yue Liu
- Dr Johanna Loehr
- Gui Lohmann
- Professor Brent Moyle
- Dr Mai Nguyen
- Ly Nguyen
- Dr Rawan Nimri
- Professor Kylie Pitt
- Dr Raymond Rastegar
- Valerio Rodrigues de Souza Neto
- Dr Aishath Shakeela
- Hamid Talebi
- Dr Ross Westoby
The future of tourism isn’t about recovery, it’s about redesign
9 days, 5 locations, 4 workshops — and one great team.
Within our MBIE research programme, we collaborate with operators, local iwi, communities, and destination managers to reimagine South Westland tourism and co-create a regenerative future.
Our first ‘Living Lab’ explored aspirations for a resilient, knowledge intensive, and low-carbon tourism system, providing a critical stepstone for our continuing research.
Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff further provided the unique experience of ‘manaakitanga’ by hosting our first ‘All-Team Meeting’. A truly memorable moment of shared purpose. Hei konā mai.