Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by tourism have been studied from several perspectives, but few studies exist that include all direct and indirect emissions, particularly those from aviation. In this study, an input/output-based hybrid life-cycle assessment (LCA) method is developed to ass...
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2016
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/396 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147 |
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ftopinvisindi:oai:opinvisindi.is:20.500.11815/396 2023-05-15T16:46:35+02:00 Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions Sharp, Hannah Grundius, Josefine Heinonen, Jukka Umhverfis- og byggingarverkfræðideild (HÍ) Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (UI) Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland 2016-11-08 1147 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/396 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147 en eng MDPI AG Sustainability;8(11) Sharp, H.; Grundius, J.; Heinonen, J. Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1147. doi:10.3390/su8111147 2071-1050 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/396 Sustainability doi:10.3390/su8111147 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Carbon footprint Greenhouse gas Lifecycle assessment Tourism Transport Aviation Gróðurhúsalofttegundir Ferðaþjónusta Samgöngur Flug info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2016 ftopinvisindi https://doi.org/20.500.11815/396 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147 2022-11-18T06:51:31Z The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by tourism have been studied from several perspectives, but few studies exist that include all direct and indirect emissions, particularly those from aviation. In this study, an input/output-based hybrid life-cycle assessment (LCA) method is developed to assess the consumption-based carbon footprint of the average tourist including direct and indirect emissions. The total inbound tourism-related GHG emissions are also calculated within a certain region. As a demonstration of the method, the full carbon footprint of an average tourist is assessed as well as the total GHG emissions induced by tourism to Iceland over the period of 2010–2015, with the presented approach applicable in other contexts as well. Iceland provides an interesting case due to three features: (1) the tourism sector in Iceland is the fastest-growing industry in the country with an annual growth rate of over 20% over the past five years; (2) almost all tourists arrive by air; and (3) the country has an almost emissions-free energy industry and an import-dominated economy, which emphasise the role of the indirect emissions. According to the assessment, the carbon footprint for the average tourist is 1.35 tons of CO2-eq, but ranges from 1.1 to 3.2 tons of CO2-eq depending on the distance travelled by air. Furthermore, this footprint is increasing due to the rise in average flight distances travelled to reach the country. The total GHG emissions caused by tourism in Iceland have tripled from approximately 600,000 tons of CO2-eq in 2010 to 1,800,000 tons in 2015. Aviation accounts for 50%–82% of this impact (depending on the flight distance) underlining the importance of air travel, especially as tourism-related aviation is forecasted to grow significantly in the near future. From a method perspective, the carbon footprinting application presented in the study would seem to provide an efficient way to study both the direct and indirect emissions and to provide new insights and information to enable the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Opin vísindi (Iceland) Flug ENVELOPE(-15.098,-15.098,64.578,64.578) Sustainability 8 11 1147 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Opin vísindi (Iceland) |
op_collection_id |
ftopinvisindi |
language |
English |
topic |
Carbon footprint Greenhouse gas Lifecycle assessment Tourism Transport Aviation Gróðurhúsalofttegundir Ferðaþjónusta Samgöngur Flug |
spellingShingle |
Carbon footprint Greenhouse gas Lifecycle assessment Tourism Transport Aviation Gróðurhúsalofttegundir Ferðaþjónusta Samgöngur Flug Sharp, Hannah Grundius, Josefine Heinonen, Jukka Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
topic_facet |
Carbon footprint Greenhouse gas Lifecycle assessment Tourism Transport Aviation Gróðurhúsalofttegundir Ferðaþjónusta Samgöngur Flug |
description |
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by tourism have been studied from several perspectives, but few studies exist that include all direct and indirect emissions, particularly those from aviation. In this study, an input/output-based hybrid life-cycle assessment (LCA) method is developed to assess the consumption-based carbon footprint of the average tourist including direct and indirect emissions. The total inbound tourism-related GHG emissions are also calculated within a certain region. As a demonstration of the method, the full carbon footprint of an average tourist is assessed as well as the total GHG emissions induced by tourism to Iceland over the period of 2010–2015, with the presented approach applicable in other contexts as well. Iceland provides an interesting case due to three features: (1) the tourism sector in Iceland is the fastest-growing industry in the country with an annual growth rate of over 20% over the past five years; (2) almost all tourists arrive by air; and (3) the country has an almost emissions-free energy industry and an import-dominated economy, which emphasise the role of the indirect emissions. According to the assessment, the carbon footprint for the average tourist is 1.35 tons of CO2-eq, but ranges from 1.1 to 3.2 tons of CO2-eq depending on the distance travelled by air. Furthermore, this footprint is increasing due to the rise in average flight distances travelled to reach the country. The total GHG emissions caused by tourism in Iceland have tripled from approximately 600,000 tons of CO2-eq in 2010 to 1,800,000 tons in 2015. Aviation accounts for 50%–82% of this impact (depending on the flight distance) underlining the importance of air travel, especially as tourism-related aviation is forecasted to grow significantly in the near future. From a method perspective, the carbon footprinting application presented in the study would seem to provide an efficient way to study both the direct and indirect emissions and to provide new insights and information to enable the ... |
author2 |
Umhverfis- og byggingarverkfræðideild (HÍ) Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (UI) Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sharp, Hannah Grundius, Josefine Heinonen, Jukka |
author_facet |
Sharp, Hannah Grundius, Josefine Heinonen, Jukka |
author_sort |
Sharp, Hannah |
title |
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
title_short |
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
title_full |
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
title_fullStr |
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions |
title_sort |
carbon footprint of inbound tourism to iceland: a consumption-based life-cycle assessment including direct and indirect emissions |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/396 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-15.098,-15.098,64.578,64.578) |
geographic |
Flug |
geographic_facet |
Flug |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Sustainability;8(11) Sharp, H.; Grundius, J.; Heinonen, J. Carbon Footprint of Inbound Tourism to Iceland: A Consumption-Based Life-Cycle Assessment including Direct and Indirect Emissions. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1147. doi:10.3390/su8111147 2071-1050 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/396 Sustainability doi:10.3390/su8111147 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11815/396 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111147 |
container_title |
Sustainability |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1147 |
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1766036695099113472 |