ACI Europe has published an update on the progress European airports have made toward their commitment to reach 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030. This commitment is a major interim step toward the Net Zero by 2050 vision and pledge, which is part of the wider Sustainability Strategy for Airports launched last June by ACI Europe.
With the successful upgrade on October 16 of six Lapland Airports 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 Europe.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, said, “Just three years after committing to 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030, the European airport industry is now halfway to achieving that goal. The 50 airports that have become carbon neutral under Airport Carbon Accreditation welcome over a quarter of the continent’s passenger traffic – with a mix of major hubs and smaller regional airports among them.”
Carbon neutrality currently represents the highest level of carbon management performance under Airport Carbon Accreditation. 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 must provide evidence of undertaking all the actions required by the program (mapping their emissions, reducing them and engaging operational stakeholders on the airport site to do the same), before investing in carbon offsets.