Amid evidence of rising emissions, the aviation industry continues to promote demand growth while offering long-term sustainability reassurances communicated as "facts." Using counterfactual analysis, this paper examines how industry rhetoric constructs and defends these discursive strategies. Drawing on a content analysis of 211 sources - including airline websites, industry reports, and manufacturer statements - the study identifies seven discursive strategies. The findings reveal a novel theoretical mechanism, "future soothing": projecting technological salvation into a perpetually deferred future to ease public concern and postpone regulation. By transforming delay into the illusion of progress, discourses operate as rhetorical governance, sustaining growth under the guise of climate responsibility. The paper contributes to scholarship on the temporal politics of sustainability, showing how appeals to the future enable inaction in the present and illustrating how rhetoric, temporality, and power intertwine in shaping societal responses to climate change. Breaking aviation's "cycle of blame" requires policymaker action.

Aviation's climate impact continues to grow, with little progress toward emission reductions aligned with global targets. While technological advances attract attention, operational efficiency across aircraft, airlines, airports, city pairs, and regions remains underexplored. Here we assess carbon dioxide efficiency for 27.5 million flights between 26,156 city pairs in 2023, using data from Airline Data, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Air Transport Association. Results show wide variation: 32-890 gram carbon dioxide per revenue passenger kilometres across routes and 60-360 gram carbon dioxide per revenue passenger kilometre across aircraft models. Efficiency differs by region and is lowest in Africa, Australia, and Norway, and highest in Brazil, India, and Southeast Asia. Operating all routes at their demonstrated optimum could cut emissions by 10.7%. A theoretical 50% reduction is possible with the most efficient aircraft, all-economy layouts, and 95% load factors. Efficiency-focused policy could swiftly reduce fuel use without limiting air transport capacity.

Tour operators strongly influence both destination and transport choices and therefore play a pivotal role in determining tourism-related emissions, which largely depend on travel distance and the emission intensity of the chosen transport mode. Drawing on a sample of ten small and medium-sized tour operators in Germany, this study examines the relationship between emissions and profitability. Carbon intensities (CO2 emissions per euro of profit) are calculated for air transport and pre-tax profits for all trips offered (n = 2,301) and analysed. The results reveal substantial variation in carbon intensities - up to a tenfold difference between individual destinations and a fivefold difference between operators. The paper further evaluates the carbon risks arising from carbon trading and low-carbon fuel quotas within the EU, finding that most trips are unlikely to remain profitable beyond the mid-2030s, with projected losses - not considering demand responses - ranging from 10% to 403% of current profitability. The analysis underscores the importance for tour operators of assessing carbon intensities and phasing out packages that contribute disproportionately to emissions or exhibit unfavourable carbon efficiency. Recommendations are made for restructuring destination portfolios to enhance profitability and strengthen business model resilience to carbon-related shocks.

Introduction: Environmental Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) can inform decisions about the health effects of policy-related changes in environmental exposures. Conventional health impact metrics, focusing on mortality, morbidity, and disability, neglect subjective well-being. We explored the need and feasibility of integrating wellbeing indicators such as happiness and life satisfaction into quantitative environmental HIAs.

Methods: Building on a multidisciplinary expert workshop and existing literature, we addressed (1) definitions and indicators of well-being, (2) pathways linking environmental exposures (air pollution, noise, extreme temperatures, and green space) to well-being, and (3) the strength of epidemiological evidence for these associations. We evaluated the challenges of integrating well-being indicators into environmental HIAs, and provided an exploratory example.

Results: We argue that including well-being in HIAs offers a more comprehensive view of health, aligning with policy goals focused on enhancing citizen's well-being. The literature identifies plausible pathways linking exposures to well-being, whilst epidemiological evidence for associations between environmental exposures and well-being is limited, but suggestive. We propose conducting exploratory HIAs integrating well-being, especially for green space (n = 16 epidemiological studies) and air pollution (n = 18). We outline two practical integration strategies: (1) report well-being impacts separately as Well-being-Adjusted Life Years, and (2) incorporate wellbeing into existing health indicators such as Quality-Adjusted Life Years or Disability-Adjusted Life Years.

Conclusions: Inclusion of well-being into quantitative environmental HIAs presents a more comprehensive representation of health and well-being beyond indicators focusing on morbidity and mortality. However, the epidemiological evidence base regarding environmental exposures and well-being warrants further expansion.

Less than a year into Donald Trump's second presidency, global politics has shifted toward unilateralism, the weaponization of trade and finance, and rising authoritarianism. Media and data influence have become increasingly concentrated among billionaires and major technology companies, whose control over personal data and public opinion undermines democratic governance. These developments reinforce structural dependencies and are not consistent with the European Union's objectives of sovereignty, strategic autonomy, and social cohesion. Tourism, as a sector reliant on fossil fuels, digital platforms, and cross-border mobility, exemplifies how U.S.-dominated infrastructures generate economic rents, extract data, and constrain European policy autonomy. Strategic tourism governance offers instruments to address these dependencies, including energy transition, regulation of digital platforms, and visa policies. Such measures can enhance European sovereignty, market-value retention, and strategic autonomy, while signaling political accountability. By framing tourism as a site of structural intervention, Europe can reduce economic and informational asymmetries with the United States, strengthen resilience against unilateral policies, and support a broader strategy of independence, sustainability, and democratic stability.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the tourism sector play crucial yet often underestimated roles in climate change mitigation, contributing to approximately half of the sector's greenhouse gas emissions. Although the existing literature has examined barriers to climate change action and potential drivers for the involvement of small firms, these aspects have not been comprehensively explored within the context of tourism. The article addresses this gap by conducting a narrative review that analyzes 78 papers and reports published on the topic. The results substantiate a differentiation among barriers, pressures, and incentives. Barriers encompass aspects related to knowledge and personality, understanding and perceptions, management, data, finances, technology, legislation, and community. Pressures originate from costs, customer expectations, and compliance. Incentives manifest in economic considerations, subsidies, marketing strategies, staff benefits, and community advantages. The findings are synthesized into a series of conceptualizations, offering pathways for progress on mitigation. Findings emphasize the significance of legislation and efforts of destination management organizations for accelerating SME engagement with climate change.

As AI applications begin to penetrate tourism, there is a growing need to better understand the opportunities and risks AI poses to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To address this, the paper combines a narrative review of the literature for the years 2019-2024 (n = 148 papers) with three targeted queries of ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed by OpenAI. Queries explore how AI is currently used in tourism, its future applications, and the risks associated with its use in achieving the SDGs. Findings suggest that most linkages highlighted in the academic literature are positive, speculative, generic, and optimistic. In comparison, the interrelationships highlighted by ChatGPT suggest greater complexity, ambiguity, contradictions, trade-offs, and effects across scales that have relevance for the individual SDGs. This paper is the first to provide a more systematic overview of AI and sustainable tourism interrelationships and lays out the connections between the various SDG dimensions that will be affected. This provides the groundwork for more targeted empirical research.

Air transport is energy-intense, and considerable attention has been paid to the sector's use of fuel and emissions of greenhouse gases. Commercial aviation is believed to currently emit about 1 Gt CO2 per year, if considering global bunker fuel use (scope 1 in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol). A growing database is becoming available on scope 1-3 emissions; this is, including up- and downstream emissions, and it is now possible to assess the aviation system's carbon intensity more comprehensively. This paper investigates the annual reports of 26 of the largest airlines in the world by market capitalisation, finding that reporting on emissions for scopes 1-3 is still inconsistent and characterised by reporting gaps. Yet, available data suggests that scope 3 emissions are significant (about 30% of scope 1 emissions). These findings have repercussions for the sector's net-zero ambitions, climate governance, consumer choices and air transport finance, as the overall contribution from air travel to climate change remains underestimated. Results suggest that it is in the sector's interest to present robust, transparent, consistent and accurate emission inventories - and to engage with the implications.

As the international community gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan at the 29th United Nations climate conference (COP-29) tourism holds a new place of prominence, being included in the host Presidency strategic agenda for the first time. The series of initiatives and high-level meetings culminated in the Baku Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism. This is the fifth such declaration by the tourism sector over the past two decades. This paper examines to what extent the tourism sector has delivered outcomes related to 38 actionable climate pledges identified in previous declarations. A visible gap exists between pledges and performance, with limited to no demonstrable progress found on 25 climate action pledges. Time is the enemy, and the tourism sector must move beyond ambition to produce results at scale to stabilize and reduce emissions and build climate resilience. The Baku Declaration, endorsed by 69 countries and 9 non-state actors, does not provide a robust programme of action to accelerate progress on past climate action pledges that have gone unfulfilled. The launch of a new UN led global partnership mechanism to catalyze climate action holds more prospect but will need to overcome barriers that led to inertia following past Declarations.

A growing number of older adults have the financial means to travel extensively. This expanding travel market could have significant climate implications, as older travellers often prefer energy-intensive tourism, such as cruises. To explore the consequences of this trend, this paper examines the current and planned travel behaviours of a representative sample of the Boomer generation in Germany. The analysis is based on data from Reiseanalyse, an annual survey of 7,259 Germans, and a Norstat survey of 1,101 older German adults. Findings reveal a complex picture: A significant portion of retirees lacks the financial means to travel, while travel intensity declines with age, with a marked decrease after age 75. Averaged across the population, retirees have a smaller carbon footprint from travel than those still in the workforce. Although these factors suggest tourism emissions will decline as the population ages, this trend may reverse as Boomers retire, given their propensity for carbon-intensive travel. To keep Germany on track with its climate goals, proactive policies are needed to address these sociodemographic shifts and their implications for emissions. Findings extend beyond Germany, as affluent senior populations are growing in other high-income countries as well.