Fifty European airports have achieved carbon neutrality

Ahead of COP25 in Santiago de Chile, ACI Europe has announced there are now 50 carbon neutral airports in Europe having achieved Level 3+ Airport Carbon Accreditation.

This commitment is a significant step towards the Net Zero by 2050 pledge which forms part of the wider sustainability strategy for airports launched by ACI Europe in June 2017. By first meeting the target of becoming carbon neutral, airports can develop their strategies for reducing CO₂ and use them as a stepping stone towards the more ambitious net-zero target.

As Oliver Jankovec, ACI Europe’s Director General, explained: “While the net-zero concept does not allow for offsetting, reaching carbon neutrality first allows airports to grow towards more ambitious CO₂ management and restrictions in a progressive way. With the commitment of the European airport industry to reach net-zero CO₂ emissions under their control by 2050 an absolute priority, Europe’s airports continue their steady pace to reach the goalposts between their current carbon management level and the ambitious objective ahead.”

Carbon neutrality currently represents the highest level of carbon management performance under Airport Carbon Accreditation. In order 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 have to provide evidence of undertaking all the actions required by the programme (mapping their emissions, reducing them and engaging operational stakeholders on the airport site to do the same), before investing in carbon offsets.

The recent successful upgrade of six Lapland Airports operated by Finavia to Level 3+ Neutrality of the global CO₂ management standard, Airport Carbon Accreditation, brings the current total to 50.