Air quality

50 airports now #CarbonNeutral in Europe

Published

7 years ago

October 16, 2019

Ahead of the COP25 due to kick off in Santiago de Chile next month, European airport trade body ACI EUROPE today gives an update on the progress airports have made to deliver on their commitment to reach 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030¹. This commitment is a major interim step towards their Net Zero by 2050 vision & pledge² - which is part of the wider Sustainability Strategy for Airports³ launched last June by ACI EUROPE.

With the successful upgrade today of six Lapland Airports⁴ operated by Finavia (the Finnish airport operator) to Level 3+ Neutrality of the global CO2 management standard, Airport Carbon Accreditation, there are now 50 carbon neutral airports in Europe⁵.

ACI EUROPE Director General Olivier Jankovec said: "Just 3 years after committing to 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030, the European airport industry is now halfway through to achieve that goal. The 50 airports that have become carbon neutral under Airport Carbon Accreditation welcome over one-fourth of the continent’s passenger traffic - with a mix of major hubs & smaller regional airports amongst them.”

Carbon neutrality currently represents the highest level of carbon management performance under Airport Carbon Accreditation. In order to reach it, airports need to reduce CO2 emissions from those sources under their control as much as possible, and compensate for the remaining residual emissions with investment in high-quality carbon offsets. Carbon neutral airports at Level 3+ of the Airport Carbon Accreditation have to provide evidence of undertaking all the actions required by the programme (mapping their emissions, reducing them and engaging operational stakeholders on the airport site to do the same), before investing in carbon offsets.

Jankovec added: "While the net zero concept does not allow for offsetting, reaching carbon neutrality first allows airports to grow towards more ambitious CO2 management & restrictions in a progressive way. With the commitment of the European airport industry to reach Net Zero CO2 emissions under their control by 2050 an absolute priority, Europe’s airports continue their steady pace to reach the goalposts between their current carbon management level and the ambitious objective ahead."

Niclas Svenningsen, who heads the Climate Neutral Now initiative at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in Bonn, Germany commented: « We are delighted to see more and more airports in Europe achieving their hard-won carbon neutrality each year. We note that the momentum airports have created through their decade-long progress within Airport Carbon Accreditation has been further galvanized by the growing urgency to respond to the Climate Emergency. »

He added: « Europe’s airports continue to be an example to follow in the field of non-state action to address the climate emergency. While having their eyes on the big goal of reaching Net Zero carbon emissions from their operations by 2050, they continue their incremental work to reduce their climate impact. This, is exactly the kind of industry leadership we need to address the daunting and unprecedented challenge that Climate Change represents.”

¹View the pledge here.

²Learn more about the Net Zero by 2050 commitment here.

³Download your copy of the ACI EUROPE Sustainability Strategy here.

⁴Lapland Airports: Enontekiö (ENF), Ivalo (IVL), Kemi-Tornio (KEM), Kittilä (KTT), Kuusamo (KAO) and Rovaniemi (RVN)

⁵Download the full list of carbon neutral airports here:
The full list of carbon neutral airports.pdf

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that aviation’s total CO2 emissions account for 2% of global emissions’ impact on climate change. Of that figure, airports’ own operations only account for up to 5%.

Airport Carbon Accreditation is the only global standard for carbon management at airports. Its aim is to encourage and enable airports to reduce their emissions. Within its framework, airports can become accredited at four progressively ambitious levels of accreditation: Mapping, Reduction, Optimization and Neutrality.

It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed and has already won praise from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the European Commission (EC).

Originally developed and launched by ACI EUROPE in June 2009, Airport Carbon Accreditation was extended to airports in Asia-Pacific, in November 2011 (in partnership with ACI Asia-Pacific) and to African airports in June 2013, (in partnership with ACI Africa), North American airports in September 2014 (in partnership with ACI-NA) and airports in Latin America & Caribbean in December 2014 (in partnership with ACI-LAC).

To find out which airports are certified & their level of certification, click here.

ACI EUROPE is the European region of Airports Council International (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators. ACI EUROPE represents over 500 airports in 45 European countries. Our members facilitate over 90% of commercial air traffic in Europe: 2.3 billion passengers, 21.2 million tonnes of freight and 25.7 million aircraft movements in 2018. In response to the Climate Emergency, in June 2019 our members committed to achieve net zero carbon emissions for operations under their control by 2050, without offsetting.

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