The matter in summary: • Tromsø is experiencing an increase in tourism, with new direct flight routes and cruise ship calls, which contributes to increasing climate emissions.• Tromsø municipality has set a target of halving climate emissions from 2009 to 2025, but emissions have increased by 15 per cent until 2022.• Several climate organizations demand that the municipality take action, including limiting tourist growth and setting requirements for how it happens.• Tromsø municipality is working on drawing up new climate targets, with a tourism strategy and a climate, environment and energy plan. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – I love the culture, the people, nature. It is a fantastic country, says Patricia Sehildenberger. She is one of around 2,500 tourists who visit Tromsø for a few hours on a German cruise ship this July day. Because more and more tourists are coming to Northern Norway’s largest city. Almost weekly, new direct routes are announced from abroad, and Tromsø Airport has had the largest passenger growth in the country in recent weeks, reports Avinor. Marius Rølland in the Nature Conservation Association in Tromsø and the surrounding area wants to focus more on the climate surrounding tourism growth. Photo: Simen Wingstad / news – The situation is worrying from a climate and nature perspective. Now it feels as if tourism is increasing explosively and somewhat uncontrolled on many fronts, at the same time that emissions continue to increase in the municipality, says Marius Rølland, board member of the Nature Conservation Association in Tromsø and surroundings. For Tromsø municipality, the aim is to halve climate emissions from 2009 to 2025. The latest figures from 2022 show that emissions have rather increased by 15 per cent, according to figures from the Norwegian Environment Agency. Tourists can secure local delicacies at the Rakettkiosken in Tromsø city centre. Photo: Torkil Stoltz / news Will have limitations Rølland and the Nature Conservation Association have teamed up with several of the voluntary climate organizations in the north. They call themselves the climate and nature alliance and believe that climate and nature must be a central part of the debate around the development of tourism. – After all, Tromsø municipality is the one who can set restrictions and can influence how much tourism we will bring in to the municipality, as well as set requirements for how tourism takes place, says Rølland. Ingunn Elstad from the Best Parents’ Climate Action, leader Isak Brox Krane in Tromsø Nature and Youth and Marius Rølland in the Nature Conservation Association all believe that Tromsø municipality must now take action on the climate. Photo: Simen Wingstad / news After many years of focusing specifically on tourism growth in the north, Nature and Youth believes that it is now time to think differently and adjust. – It costs a lot not to develop business and not to think about growth. But it is not as great a cost as the one that will fall on my generation and future generations if one chooses to do nothing. The municipality has the power to change, says Isak Brox Krane, head of Tromsø Nature and Youth. Wants to set a tourist limit One who early on shouted a warning about the growth in tourism is Henrik Romsaas. The community debater in Tromsø reacts to the fact that tourists are increasing at the same time as climate emissions are increasing. – It is a huge paradox. If you are going to Tromsø, there are two ways to get here, by plane or boat. Both parts are worst when it comes to climate emissions. Community debater Henrik Romsaas wants to set a limit on tourists who come. Photo: Per Inge A. Åsen / news He says there are many positive aspects of tourism in Tromsø, but that there are negative aspects that must be discussed. – How “hot spot” should we really be, and how much should we heat up the earth with all the tourists who come here. We must actually have a limit for how many tourists, planes and boats we will accept, without that limit being easy to define, says Romsaas. – Approaching a limit of tolerance Tromsø municipality primarily sees positively what they call a wild growth in tourism. – There are a lot of people who are making good money now and this has good ripple effects. But now we are starting to approach a tolerance limit and it is something we have to start discussing, says Kari Helene Skog. She is the Labor Party’s leader of the MIKS committee in Tromsø municipality. With responsibility for environmental, sports, cultural and community development, Skog leads the political work on Tromsø’s climate goals. Kari Helene Skog (Ap) leads Tromsø municipality’s climate work. Photo: Simen Wingstad / news – Air traffic is one of the worst emitters, we know that. But it’s not like we can just close the airport, everyone knows that. But taking it down and regulating it is something we may have to look at eventually. Skog acknowledges that the municipality is not meeting the climate targets that have been set, but believes that the tolerance limit for tourism has not yet been reached. – We have to look at all the climate emissions in Tromsø municipality, there is more than just planes that affect it. New plans on the way Tromsø municipality is now working to put in place both a tourism strategy and a climate, environment and energy plan more or less simultaneously. – Discussion is all well and good, but several people say they miss action. What do you say to that? – In the municipal sector, it is precisely such plans that are the action, that is where the measures are located and where the objectives are set. In my world, it is not the case that we first start talking about the measures. First we have to agree on what the problem is, then we have to anchor it in the industry and in the population. It is, after all, a larger measure we are talking about, says Skog. More and more direct routes are being set up between abroad and Tromsø Airport. Photo: Simen Wingstad / news Skog expects to have a new climate plan in place before the end of the year. – We have to look at how we can reduce emissions. We are talking about planes, fishing vessels, car traffic, cruise traffic. There are many major emission problems that we have to look at. Work is being done in all fields, but technology and infrastructure are lagging behind. So we are simply behind, says Skog. And while new climate targets are being worked on, tourists continue to flock to Tromsø. – We love it, and we plan everything to come back here, says cruise tourist Sehildenberger. Hi!Did you think of anything when you read the case, or do you have a story you want to tell? Feel free to send me an email! Published 10.07.2024, at 05.11
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Tourist boom in Tromsø with many foreign routes and cruise calls provides climate shock – news Troms and Finnmark
