A new partnership was announced on Earth Day between Ecotrans - Tourism2030 and SUNx – Strong Universal Network. The alliance has been forged in the spirit of SDG-17 – Partnerships for the Goals. An MOU was signed following a meeting at ITB at the launch of the Tourism 2030 Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Portal. The agreement focusses on the belief that Climate Change is eXistential and over-arching, and that the Travel & Tourism industry needs to work together to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Accord and related Sustainable Development Goals. The partnership is a result of the long-standing collaboration between Geoffrey Lipman, SUNx Co-founder, and Herbert Hamele and Gordon Sillence of Ecotrans - Tourism2030.

Ecotrans - Tourism 2030 is an independent network managing the Tourism 2030 knowledge base and networking portal to help make tourism more sustainable. It has a focus on knowledge base development and information sharing for all tourism stakeholders and networks from local to global level who are working for making tourism more sustainable.

Herbert Hamele, President Ecotrans - Tourism 2030, said: Knowledge is the public commodity directing sustainable and resilient development. We hope to bring to this partnership over three decades of high–level experience in delivering education, training and consultancy in the form of ICT tools and expert networks to work with SunX to help implement their programme to meet the goals not just in Europe, but globally.

SUNx – Strong Universal Network- is a program of the EU based, not for profit Green Growth and Travelism Institute, and a legacy to the late Maurice Strong - sustainable development pioneer. Its goal is to promote Climate Resilient, Impact-Travel with good & bad effects measured and managed coherently: with Green Growth at the core and, 2050-proof in line with the Paris Accords and the W.E.F. 4th Industrial Revolution. At its heart are SUNx Centres: prefabricated, solar powered climate research and innovation centres for climate resilience, lifetime learning and capacity building. Professor Geoffrey Lipman, SUNx Co-founder said:

“We are proud to be working in partnership with Ecotrans - Tourism 2030 who have been working tirelessly in the field of Sustainable Tourism for the past 25 years. We have developed a model for a global network that will support Travel & Tourism in its journey to align with the Paris Climate targets and relevant Sustainable Development Goals and it is only through partnerships such as these that this will be possible.”