Companies against climate change

The shocking recent UN report on climate change is the first of three reports that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will publish up to 2022. The first report contained the most up-to-date information on climate change and the scenarios that may occur in 2030 and 2100 if average global temperatures continue to increase without any control. The second and third reports will describe the consequences of global warming and the measures required to adapt to it and mitigate it.

The three most obvious conclusions in the report are the seriousness of the situation, which scientists describe as “code red”, the direct and complete responsibility of humankind for climate change, and the chance that we still have to halt or at least slow down the global warming process. Personally, I can only offer my full support to the UN in their noble attempts to raise awareness among governments and the global population in general about the importance of climate change, its consequences, and the urgent need to act if we wish to prevent increasingly abnormal and aggressive weather events such as the recent floods in central Europe, which are only the tip of the iceberg in the deterioration of our planet.

In the same line as the UN and all of its bodies, as seen in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030, for many years we have stressed the importance of public-private partnerships based on a belief that sustainable development cannot be achieved without companies being in the front line of social change due to their capacity to influence others and the impact of their activity itself. Travel companies, especially those focused on leisure travel, have a particularly important responsibility given that we normally operate in privileged natural environments which are often very sensitive to climate change. Millions of increasingly environmentally aware people trust their holiday experience to us, meaning that we not only have to act correctly, but we also have to set an example and help raise awareness about the importance of making a positive impact on our environment.

I am happy to say that Meliá Hotels International is the heir to the environmental awareness that our founder was already demonstrating back in the 1980s, when he opened our first hotel in Bali, the Meliá Bali. At that time Bali was a pristine destination that had to be developed in the most sustainable and balanced way following the local Tri-Hita Karana philosophy, which he then tried to emulate in other destinations all over the world. Today our Group is the second most sustainable hotel company in the world according to the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, after achieving the top position in 2019. We have also been named among the European Climate Leaders by the Financial Times and Statista. However, the scale of the challenge means we may not rest on our laurels, and we have reinforced our commitment to combatting climate change as we stated in our most recent Management Report for January to June 2021.

In 2019 Meliá certified its emission reduction targets based on scientific criteria as agreed at the COP21 meeting in Paris. We have recently reviewed and increased those targets in line with the conclusions of COP24 in Katowice in Poland, intensifying our commitment and global efforts to keep the average temperature increase to below 1.5oC by the end of the century compared to the average in the pre-industrial era.

We have adapted our strategy and redefined our science-based targets for scopes 1, 2 and 3 emission reductions from -17.5% to -29.4% by 2025, and from -42.5% to -71.4% by 2035. In the first half of 2021 we have continued to extend the scope of our Co2PERATE project (already implemented in 74 hotels), using artificial intelligence in cooling equipment and constantly monitoring hotels to detect new opportunities for savings and efficiency. To minimise the consumption of energy and water (including in hotels that have been inactive during the pandemic), we have continued to replace equipment and machinery with more modern and efficient alternatives.

To end, I would like to highlight the important matter of raising awareness and increasing the involvement of our stakeholders, for which I would also like to highlight the “The Planet We Love” project. The project was launched in 2019 together with our partner Climate Trade and presented at the COP 25 summit held in Madrid. It is the first of its kind to apply blockchain technology in a hotel company to allow customers to convert their MeliaRewards points into carbon credits to be used to support the environmental projects of their choice.

I am convinced that companies have a major responsibility in the global fight against climate change. As our corporate purpose states, “Working towards a sustainable future from a responsible present”, the climate warning given by the UN is of immense and direct concern to us given that, as the UN itself says, we must seek a solution "now or never".

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