Three Indian airports are rated carbon neutral under the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme
At least 288 airports have joined the global carbon accreditation programme and registered a collective CO2 reduction of over 320,000 tonnes or 4.9 per cent in 2018. Of these, 61 airports are carbon neutral, says the latest annual results published by Airport Carbon Accreditation, a body launched by ACI Europe in 2009 and now global in membership. Three airports in India—Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad—are rated carbon neutral
The past reporting year, running from May 2018 to May 2019, ended with 274 accredited airports worldwide, an increase of 16% over the previous year. Since May this year, 14 more airports have joined the programme and became certified at one of its four levels of accreditation (mapping, reduction, optimisation and neutrality). Out of the 288 member airports, 147 are in Europe, 53 in Asia-Pacific, 47 in North America, 27 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 14 in Africa.
“It has been a decade since the launch of the programme and it keeps on growing – both in the number of airports coming on board and in the level of ambition for carbon management. In its tenth year, 49 participating airports upgraded to a more demanding level of accreditation, the highest ever reported,” said ACI World director general Angela Gittens in a media release ahead of the 13th edition of ACI Airport Exchange in Abu Dhabi.
She added: “From May 2018 to May 2019, accredited airports succeeded in collectively reducing the CO2 emissions under their control by 322,297 tonnes, a reduction of 4.9%.
“Additionally, the fifty airports at the highest level of Airport Carbon Accreditation contributed to a further reduction of 710,673 tonnes of CO2 in other sectors through offsets aimed at balancing out their residual emissions.
“It is encouraging to witness the airport industry’s push for ambitious carbon management from within, which this year delivered a 4.9 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions under their control. There is much that other industries can learn from this and even emulate,” said Niclas Svenningsen, heads of the Climate Neutral Now initiative at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat.
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