With the groundswell of political visibility and a number of key events about Climate Change building up to the COP21 climate negotiations later this year, the independent programme Airport Carbon Accreditation provided an update on its progress since going global in November 2014.

Following the global airport industry’s commitment to reduce its carbon emissions made 7 years ago, the intervening years since then have seen an ever-increasing number of airports apply for certification by Airport Carbon Accreditation.

The programme certifies airports at 4 different levels of accreditation covering all stages of carbon management (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality). It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed¹ and has already won praise from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nation Environment Panel (UNEP) and the European Union (EU). In the past twelve months, Airport Carbon Accredited status has been earned by a total of 122 airports across the world.**

Patti Chau, Regional Director ACI Asia-Pacific and Angela Gittens, Director General ACI World commented “These airports are reporting on their carbon management activities every year and they have mobilised on this of their own accord. An impressive 1.67 billion air passengers now travel through airports certified at one of the 4 levels of the programme �" equivalent to 26.5% of global air passenger traffic. Most promisingly we are seeing a lot of airports moving up the levels of the programme - making real progress in the way they manage their carbon footprints.”

Here are the most recent developments in some of the key world regions:

BIG NEWS IN ASIA-PACIFIC

In Asia-Pacific, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport recently achieved certification at Level 3,Optimisation, having successfully reduced its own CO2 emissions and engaged others to do the same. In parallel, Brisbane Airport in Australia entered the programme at the Mapping level.

And this month, Dubai Airports successfully entered both of its airports in the programme. This marks the entry into the programme of 2 very significant airports �" Dubai International recently became the busiest airport in the world in terms of international traffic, welcoming over 70 million international passengers a year, while Al Maktoum International has been built to secure Dubai’s future ambitions as a leader in air transport.

Dubai Airports, the operator of the two airports has indicated that this is just the beginning of its plan for their airports’ journey to more sustainable operations. Just last week, they announced plans for a 100-panel solar array at Al Maktoum International, which will have a capacity of 30KW and generate about 48.8MWh of electricity per year, equal to about two-thirds of the power used by the airport terminal building. 

These two airports join their UAE-sibling, Abu Dhabi International Airport which is also one of the 24 certified airports in the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, these airports account for 21.6% of air passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific.

MORE AIRPORTS PROGRESSING IN EUROPE

Four airports have moved up a level of certification: Antalya Airport, Venice Marco Polo Airport and Rome Fiumicino Airport have upgraded to Level 3+ Neutrality, bringing the total number of carbon neutral airports in the programme to 20. In parallel, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport successfully reached Level 3 Optimisation.

Europe welcomed three new airports onto the programme: Stavanger Airport has become accredited at Level 2 Reduction, while Marseille Airport and Cannes Mandelieu Airport have joined the programme at Level 1 Mapping.

These developments are in addition to renewal certifications of airports in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

MOMENTUM BUILDING IN NORTH-AMERICA

In the 6 months since the programme was launched in North America, 6 airports have become certified by the programme in this region. Following hot on the footsteps of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as the launch airport of Airport Carbon Accreditation in North America, Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport became the second North-American accredited airport at Level 2 Reduction. 

The 4 other North-American airports are: Victoria International Airport has become accredited at Level 1 Mapping while Portland International Airport, Portland-Hillsboro Airport andPortland-Troutdale Airport have been certified at Level 2 Reduction. Collectively, these 6 airports welcome over 4% of air passenger traffic in North America each year.

AND MORE ON THE WAY

In addition, airports which have firmly committed to apply in the coming months for certification at one of the 4 levels of the programme include Denver International Airport and San Francisco International Airport in North America, Libreville Airport and Abidjan Airport in Africa and Galapagos Airport and Quito Airport in Latin America & Caribbean.

The full results for Year 6 of the programme (June 2014 to May 2015) will be released at this year’s ACI EUROPE Annual Assembly, Congress & Exhibition, in Prague from 24 to 26 June 2015.