Brussels, 06/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - 92 European airports have received the Airport Carbon Accreditation certificate awarded to airports that are committed to reducing their carbon emissions. This was awarded on Monday 6 July by the Airports Council International (ACI).
The Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc was pleased to announce on Twitter “Great to see so many airports worldwide addressing their CO2, including 92 in Europe”. Olivier Jankovec, the director general of the ACI's “Europe” department, stated: “European airports are leading the way on this and the engagement and progress have been tremendous, as can be seen from the fact that 20 of those airports are now carbon neutral”.
According to the report, whose complete version will be published midmonth, Europe is the first region in the world to commit itself to the fight against CO2 emissions from airports. Therefore, among the 92 airports awarded certification, which account for 64% of European passenger traffic a year, 22 of them have provided mapping of their carbon footprint. 34 of them have reduced their emissions, 16 have introduced discharge optimisation and 20 airports have a carbon neutral scoreboard (10 of these are in Sweden alone).
With 25 airports (23.6% of regional airline passenger traffic), the Asia-Pacific region is the most committed, after Europe, to reducing carbon emissions from airports. It is followed by North America (six airports, 4.2% of regional airline passenger traffic), then by Africa (one airport in Tunisia, 1.4% of regional airline passenger traffic) and finally, Latin America (one airport in Mexico, 0.5% of regional airline passenger traffic). Robert O'Meara from the ACI explained to EUROPE that “these significant differences can be explained by the gradual extension of the programme to a global level”.
Certification includes four gradual levels of commitment: Mapping, reduction, optimisation and neutrality. The indicators used relate to the modes of transport used, as well as the lighting, energy makes and innovative modes of decision-making. Overall, almost 1.7 billion airline passengers globally have been transported by 125 certified airports “reducing CO2 emissions… by 212,460 tonnes”. (Pascal Hansens)