Declaration

RED ROCKS INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES DECLARATION ON CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development Initiatives for Sustainable Development is a non-profit organization that supports sustainable development around the Virunga Massif by engaging in sustainable tourism and community-driven environmental conservation initiatives that are meant to benefit the local community residing near the parks. Our long-term objective is to ensure the local communities benefit from their skills in trade, art, music, education, and much more so that people can gain from sustainable tourism, while they help in environmental conservation and uplift their living standards, since Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development eco-tourism culture center believe that all the three are inextricably linked and therefore should be promoted together.

We signed up to declare urgency of climate action in tourism. We are therefore glad to scale our commitment within the concerted effort of a global community declaring climate emergency in tourism, and work together on targets for reduction of carbon emissions ahead of 2030. IPCC advises reduced emissions to 55% below 2017 levels in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming within the next decade

We are committing to; like all signatories, the following five actions:

Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ within the next 12 months, which sets out our intentions to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.

Share an initial public declaration of our ‘Climate Emergency Plan,’ and update on progress each year. as a platform to bring attention to critical issues on climate emergencies, mainly by facilitating communication between government, industry, community, and academic research. We intend that this effort will address current knowledge gaps about climate change that results to skepticism and uncertainty, and encourage planning based on factual research information.

Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable, and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per customer arising from our operations and the travel services sold by us.

Encourage our suppliers and partners to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community by creating awareness with the local community by continuing to create safe spaces for highlighting climate issues for clients who overnight at our premises.

Advocate for change. We recognize the need for change across the industry, and call for urgent regulatory action to accelerate the transition towards zero-carbon air travel by encouraging action in our communications network within Rwanda and the rest of Africa, and have more companies, as well as individuals, come through us in declaring a climate emergency. We will schedule to provide information and leadership to encourage uptake of climate actions by the industry for carbon mitigation measures as well as relevant adaptation plans.