The European airport sector has agreed to double the number of carbon-neutral airports from an original target of 50 airports by 2030 to 100. Currently, 27 airports have reached this status and at their industry"™s annual congress that started today, a further 26 airports in the region announced their commitment to join them. The European airport association ACI Europe first launched its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme in 2009 and since then 116 European airports have been certified at one of the four levels, with carbon neutrality the highest. The programme has now been rolled out globally across all ACI regions with 190 airports now taking part. ACI Europe also reported at its meeting the CO2 reductions for the past year from participants and announced Munich Airport had been adjudicated by the programme"™s independent advisory board as this year"™s winner of its Eco-Innovation Award.
The pledge to have 50 carbon-neutral European airports by 2030 was made during the UNFCCC COP 21 climate negotiations in 2015 held in Paris. With its annual congress taking place in the French capital eighteen months on, ACI Europe"™s President, Augustin de Romanet, who is also CEO of French airport group ADP, said: "Europe"™s airports are fully behind the objective of keeping global warming well below 2áµ’C and aiming to reach 1.5áµ’C. For its part, the airport industry has already moved from words to actions a while ago through our independent carbon management programme.
"We are already more than half way to our initial commitment, so we thought we could do even better. And looking at how some have just stepped out from the Paris Agreement, we thought we could definitely do better. So I am extremely proud to announce that we are doubling our commitment»…
