Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE: "In just 15 months, Airport Carbon Accreditation has already established itself as a scientifically robust and authoritative industry standard for carbon mapping and carbon management at airports."
At this year’s 20th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress in Milan, Ad Rutten, President of ACI EUROPE presented a ‘one year on’ update on Airport Carbon Accreditation, the carbon mapping & management programme launched at the 2009 Annual Congress in Manchester.
The institutionally-endorsed programme independently assesses and recognises airports’ efforts to manage and reduce their CO2 emissions. There are 4 different levels of accreditation (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality) and airports that have been certified to date, span all four levels.
Announcing the 1 year figure of 19 airports accredited, Rutten commented “With all of the difficulties European aviation has been experiencing in the past 2 years, I am genuinely heartened to see so many airports tackling their CO2 emissions with such unwavering commitment. Some are just beginning the process, while others are already well advanced, but carbon neutrality – not just carbon neutral growth – for Europe’s airports remains the goal.”
Skip forward a few months since the Annual Congress in Milan and to date Airport Carbon Accreditation has already certified 22 airports in 12 European countries. ACI EUROPE continues its commitment to spreading the news about this ambitious programme. At this year’s 5th Aviation and Environment Summit which took place in Geneva on September 16 & 17, some 350 delegates and various international media in attendance were given a special announcement on the collective efforts by European airports to reduce their CO2 emissions. This year’s Summit took place less than 2 weeks before the 37th ICAO Assembly, in advance of the UN climate change negotiations (COP16) in Cancun in December.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI EUROPE presented the Airport Carbon Accreditation to a packed Summit hall, with delegates from every facet of the air transport industry. While announcing the latest figure achieved – a reduction of 411,637 tonnes of CO2 to date – he also revealed the most recent accreditations. From June to September, 4 airports became accredited for the first time. These 4 new participants are Brussels Airport in Belgium, Ankara Esenboga Airport and Antalya Airport in Turkey and Umea City Airport in Sweden.
5th aviation and environment summit aviation industry urges global emissions framework
The air transport industry took the opportunity presented by the 5th Aviation and Environment Summit to send a strong message to governments meeting at the 37th ICAO Assembly from 28 September to 8 October, calling on them to endorse a set of ambitious targets for reducing aviation emissions end establish a global policy framework to deliver them.
The aviation industry established a series of targets: to improve fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5% per year from 2009 to 2020 and stabilise emissions from 2020 with carbon neutral growth, while an aspirational goal is to reduce net emissions from aviation by 50% by 2050 when compared to 2005 levels.
“Our targets are ambitious and they are unique – no other industry has come together the way that airlines, airports, air navigation providers and the aviation manufacturers have. We should be proud of that, but the work has just begun. We have 10 years to reach our 2020 target to cap net emissions. I believe we are well on our way,” said Paul Steele, executive director of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG). “It’s not just about setting targets – we’ve seen tangible restults on achieving those targets. This Summit has shown that we are making significant progress towards achieving them. Now is the time for governments to come to the party.”
The Summit highlighted new technologies, air traffic management improvements and the use of sustainable aviation biofuels as three areas with substantial potential for emissions reduction.
“Delegates reiterated industry calls to speed up the delivery of streamlined air navigation systems including the Next Generation system in the United States and the Single European Sky, the two of which would introduce significant efficiencies and carbon reductions,” said Steele.
Three announcements emphasised the partnership approach being taken to reducing emissions: A plan announced at the fourth Aviation & Environment Summit to introduce continuous descent approaches at 100 airports across Europe by 2013 has already resulted in 83 airports committed and carbon emissions already being reduced – well on the way to saving half a million tonnes of CO2 a year; ACI EUROPE’s pioneering Airport Carbon Accreditation has already certified 22 European airports, with more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 saved; while IATA has launched iFlex, a project aimed at providing maximum efficiency with flexible flight routings over ultra long-haul sectors that could reduce fuel burn by as much as 2%.
Airport Carbon Accredited status has already been awarded to some of the busiest airports in Europe such as Paris CDG & Orly, Frankfurt Airport, Amsterdam-Schiphol, Stockholm-Arlanda, Oslo Airport and Athens Airport. Further accreditations are expected in the coming weeks and months, as BAA’s London-Heathrow – the busiest airport in the world, in terms of international traffic – and DAA’s 3 airports (Dublin, Cork and Shannon) have submitted applications to the programme.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “It’s worth keeping in mind that this is still a very young programme – yet the airports accredited to date account for 26% of European passenger traffic. In just 15 months, Airport Carbon Accreditation has already established itself as a scientifically robust and authoritative industry standard for carbon mapping and carbon management at airports. We are proud of these results and you can rest assured that we will continue our efforts to encourage more airports to become Airport Carbon Accredited.”
Airports that are Airport Carbon Accredited to date:
At the ‘MAPPING’ level
- Aéroports de Paris, France: CDG Airport & Orly Airport
- Athens International Airport, Greece
- Bologna Airport, Italy
- Brussels Airport, Belgium
- Dubrovnik Airport, Croatia
- ICF Airports, Turkey: Antalya Airport
- Schiphol Group, the Netherlands: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
- TAG Aviation, UK: Farnborough Airport
- TAV Airports Holding, Turkey: Ankara Esenboga Airport, Istanbul Ataturk Airport and Izmir Adnan Menderes International Airport
At the ‘REDUCTION’ level
- Avinor, Norway: Kristansand Airport
- Fraport, Germany: Frankfurt Airport
- MAG, UK: Manchester Airport
At the ‘OPTIMISATION’ Level
- SEA Milan Airports, Italy: Milan-Linate & Milan-Malpensa (January to June 2010)
- BAA, London Heathrow
At the ‘NEUTRALITY’ Level
- Avinor, Norway: Oslo Airport & Trondheim Airport
- SEA Milan Airports, Italy: Milan-Linate & Milan-Malpensa (since June 2010)
- Swedavia, Sweden: Stockholm-Arlanda & Stockholm-Bromma & Umea City Airports
For further information about Airport Carbon Accreditation, including an up to the minute list of accredited airports, please visit: www.airportcarbonaccreditation.org
