Aéroports Côte d’Azur announces plans for zero carbon emissions by 2030

Following implementing ambitious policies to reduce its environmental footprint over the past 15 years, the Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur Group has announced its new programme that will work to ensure that zero greenhouse gases are emitted by its three airports by 2030. 

The three airports – Nice Côte d’Azur, Cannes Mandelieu and Golfe de Saint-Tropez – will undergo a series of measures outlined by the group in order to completely eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions. 

Head of Sustainable Development and the Environment at Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur, Isabelle Vandrot, said: “Today, passengers passing through our terminals account for hardly 100gm of CO₂, which is 92 per cent less than the average of European airports. This figure represents a record and an incentive to do even better. But these last few grams are the most difficult to eliminate, because they bring us face to face with technical or technological barriers that must be raised, if we are to achieve our goal of zero grams of emissions in just 10 years.”

The programme is a continuation of the group’s numerous previous commitments and will require significant action in a much smaller period of time. Though the group joined 192 European airports in June 2019 to set the 2050 deadline, the ambitious target will work to achieve the group’s aims 20 years earlier than was previously announced.

Due to their differences and nuances, each of the three airports will advance at their own pace. Golfe de Saint-Tropez Airport has been carbon-neutral since 2018 and will aim to produce zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 – this will be achieved by further cutting its emissions and installing a carbon well on site. Cannes Mandelieu Airport will follow the same roadmap, with five emission reduction stages that lead up to 2030, when the zero emissions target will be reached.

As passenger numbers continue to rise year on year, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport has become France’s second-largest airport. Despite this increase, the airport has already decreased its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent in 10 years, and became France’s first carbon-neutral airport in 2016.

In 2020, the airport will have reduced its emissions by 83 per cent – by electrifying 80 per cent of its service vehicles – and then by 86 per cent in 2021 – following efforts to make its freight terminal and technical centre gas-free. The gradual withdrawal of gas from all the buildings, the development of photovoltaic panels and the decarbonisation of special machinery will help the airport to achieve its goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.