Athens International Airport announced its commitment to participate in Airport Carbon Accreditation at the launch of the new voluntary carbon emissions management programme at the 19th ACI EUROPE Annual Congress (Manchester, June 15-16). Thirty-one airports, including AIA, have already stated their intention to join the programme which comprises 4 levels of accreditation: Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality. Airport Carbon Accreditation will be administered by WSP Environmental, a leading consultancy firm specialising in climate change and carbon management, and overseen by an independent advisory board made up of representatives of the ECAC (European Civil Aviation Conference), EUROCONTROL, and the European Commission. Dr. Yiannis Paraschis, President, ACI EUROPE and CEO of Athens International Airport, said during the ACI EUROPE Congress: “In launching Airport Carbon Accreditation, we are turning our commitment to reduce carbon emissions into concrete action. Airport Carbon Accreditation is a genuinely demanding, scientifically robust and institutionally-endorsed programme. The fact that we are doing this in the midst of the worst ever trading conditions speaks volumes about how serious we are about taking on the challenge of climate change.” “Athens International Airport, a key contributor in the creation and design of the programme, has committed since the very first moment; In Athens, since 2008, we have been implementing an Annual Climate Change Corporate Action Plan, which includes 10 specific initiatives this year, as part of our systematic effort to reduce carbon emissions from our operations”. Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI EUROPE commented “Until now, there hasn’t been a common framework for mapping and reducing carbon emissions on the airport site –which is a uniquely complicated space. The 31 airports signing up today to Airport Carbon Accreditation account for 26% of passenger traffic in Europe –no small beginning.” He added “For ACI EUROPE today is the culmination of two years of hard work. This is about collectively engaging the European airport community to play its part in addressing the impact of aviation on climate change, alongside the persistent efforts of airlines and other industry partners.”
The full list of airports participating in Airport Carbon Accreditation follows: Aéroports de Paris (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly) in France Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands Athens International Airport in Greece Avinor (Oslo, Trondheim/Værnes and Ålesund/Vigra airports) in Norway Dublin Airport Authority (Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports) in Ireland Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia Fraport (Frankfurt Airport) in Germany LFV (Göteborg, Landvetter, Kiruna, Luleå, Malmö, Ronneby, Stockholm- Arlanda, Stockholm-Bromma, Umeå, Visby and Åre Östersund airports) in Sweden Manchester Airport Group (Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports) in the UK SEA Milan Airports (Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate airports) in Italy TAV (Istanbul Atatürk International, Ankara Esenboğa International and İzmir Adnan Menderes International airports) in Turkey Note: The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has estimated that aviation’s total CO2 emissions account for 2% of global CO2 emissions. While airport operations account for just 5% of this figure, European airports are keen to tackle their greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, several individual airports operators have already achieved carbon neutrality while several others have committed to achieving neutrality within the next few years. For further information about Airport Carbon Accreditation
ACI EUROPE is the European region of Airports Council International (ACI), the only worldwide professional association of airport operators. ACI EUROPE represents some 440 airports in 45 European countries. Member airports handle 90% of commercial air traffic in Europe, welcoming over a billion passengers each year.