Airport Carbon Accreditation has released the annual results of the collective carbon management delivered by accredited airports in its 10th consecutive year.
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, proving the stronger than ever drive of the airport industry to deliver on its commitment to lower its own CO2 emissions, made in 2007.
Since last May, 14 more airports have joined the program and became certified at one of its four levels of accreditation (Mapping, Reduction, Optimization and Neutrality) – taking the total number of accredited airports to 288 as late November 2019. Out of these, 147 are in Europe, 53 in Asia-Pacific, 47 in North America, 27 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 14 in Africa.
Angela Gittens, director general of ACI World, said, “Airports have been hard at work to deliver tangible CO2 reductions through Airport Carbon Accreditation. It has been a decade since the launch of the program 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 10th year, 49 participating airports upgraded to a more demanding level of accreditation, the highest ever reported.”
She added, “From May 2018 to May 2019, accredited airports succeeded in collectively reducing the CO2 emissions under their control by 322,297 tons, a reduction of 4.9%. Furthermore, the 50 airports at the highest level of Airport Carbon Accreditation contributed to a further reduction of 710,673 tons of CO2 in other sectors through offsets aimed at balancing out their residual emissions.”
A dedicated section on carbon offsetting has been added to this year’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Annual Report in a bid to offer more detailed information on the particular projects supported by the accredited airports.
The Airport Carbon Accreditation Annual Report 2018-2019 is available to download here.