Airport Carbon Accreditation goes global

Ahead of this year’s United Nations COP20 Conference Of the Parties on the issue of Climate Change, taking place in Lima in early December, a key development in the airport industry’s efforts to address their carbon emissions, was announced in Cancun this week – on the occasion of the 23rd ACI Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) Annual Conference and General Assembly.

Following the global airport industry’s commitment to reduce its carbon emissions made 7 years ago and the European launch in 2009 of the carbon management standard Airport Carbon Accreditation, earlier this week the programme became global in scope, with its extension to airports in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Airport Carbon Accreditation certifies airports at 4 different levels of accreditation (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality). It is independently administered, institutionally-endorsed¹ and has already won praise from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nation Environment Panel (UNEP) and the European Union (EU). In the past twelve months, Airport Carbon Accredited status has been earned by a total of 110 airports in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Having already achieved significant results in 5 continents, the launch of Airport Carbon Accreditation in Latin America & Caribbean (in partnership with ACI-LAC) marks the decisive moment that the programme has become the global standard for carbon management at airports.

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE commented “A significant part of the global airport industry is already actively addressing its carbon emissions – and they have mobilised on this, of their accord. They are proactively reporting on their carbon reduction activities every year and the number of airports is constantly growing too. An impressive 1.48 billion air passengers now travel through airports certified at one of the 4 levels of the programme.”

Airport Carbon Accreditation is now live across the world and the 111 airports certified by the programme welcome 25.9% of global air passenger traffic annually.

Source and image: ACI