Airport Carbon Accreditation certifies two more African airports

Airport Carbon Accreditation has announced the certification of two significant capital airports, Felix Houphouët Boigny Abidjan International Airport in Ivory Coast and Libreville Leon M’ba International Airport in Gabon.

The Airport Carbon Accreditation programme certifies airports at four different levels of accreditation, covering all stages of carbon management; Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality. It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed and has already received praise from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nation Environment Panel (UNEP) and the European Union (EU). As of November last year, the programme is active across the world.

The global airport industry is committed to reduce carbon emissions 

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that the total of aviation CO₂ emissions account for 2% of global emissions’ impact on climate change. Of that figure, airport operations only account for up to 5%, yet airports are still keen to tackle their greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, the global airport industry became committed to reduce its carbon emissions, in a special resolution passed at the ACI WORLD Annual Congress & Assembly.

At its 24^th Annual Assembly, Regional Conference & Exhibition, currently taking place in Hammamet, Tunisia, the independent programme Airport Carbon Accreditation provided an update of its progress in Africa.

Originally developed and launched by ACI Europe in June 2009, Airport Carbon Accreditation was extended to airports in Asia-Pacific, in November 2011 and to African airports in June 2013. In September 2014 it expanded to North American airports, followed by Latin American and Caribbean airports in November 2014.

Ali Tounsi, Director General ACI Africa commented “I am delighted to announce the certification of Felix Houphouët Boigny Abidjan International Airport and Libreville Leon Mba International Airport at the Mapping level. These 2 significant capital airports join Enfidha-Hammamet Airport in actively addressing their carbon emissions. Their certification speaks of the growing awareness of the issue of Climate Change among African airports and their actions are another step in the right direction by our industry, for our continent. Their certification also serves as a reminder to the wider world that Africa is part of this programme and we look forward to others following their example.”

To find out more about the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, including the key results for Year 6 (June 2014 to May 2015), visit www.airportCO2.org