European airport carbon scheme extends to Asia as Abu Dhabi becomes first in the region to be certified

European airport carbon scheme extends to Asia as Abu Dhabi becomes first in the region to be certified | Airport Carbon Accreditation

L-R: Olivier Jankovec, DG, ACI Europe; Declan Collier, President ACI Europe; Kosaburo Morinaka ACI Asia-Pacific Vice President; Patti Chau, Regional Director, ACI Asia-Pacific

Thu 1 Dec 2011 – ACI Europe’s flagship climate change initiative, the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, has been formally extended to the Asia-Pacific region. The announcement was made at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi during the Airport Exchange 2011 event held by ACI Europe and ACI Asia-Pacific. The launch saw Abu Dhabi International Airport become the first airport in the region to achieve certification within the programme. Bangalore Airport has also committed to becoming accredited within 12 months. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has agreed to join the programme’s Advisory Board.

 

“We are delighted that Airport Carbon Accreditation is now available to Asia-Pacific’s airports,” said Patti Chau, Regional Director of ACI Asia-Pacific. “This corner of the earth will soon be the biggest aviation market in the world and airports are keenly aware of the need to make their facilities and operating processes as environmentally sustainable and efficient as possible.”

 

Airport Carbon Accreditation was launched by ACI Europe in June 2009 and 46 airports in 17 countries – accounting for 49% of European traffic – have been accredited to date, across the four possible levels of accreditation. The second year of the programme resulted in a reduction of 729,689 tonnes of CO2, reports the trade body.

 

“When we first launched Airport Carbon Accreditation there was cynicism from some quarters that a voluntary initiative without quantifiable targets wasn’t going to have much success,” recalled ACI Europe’s Director General, Olivier Jankovec. “With 46 European airports accredited and a reduction of more than 700,000 tonnes of CO2 last year, the results speak for themselves.”

 

The programme is overseen by an independent Advisory Board that includes representatives from the European Commission, ECAC (European Civil Aviation Conference), Eurocontrol and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

 

Marking ICAO’s participation on the board, Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said: “Airport Carbon Accreditation is a highly significant initiative by airports for meaningful and measurable action in addressing their greenhouse gas emissions. I commend ACI for its success with the programme in Europe and for extending it to the Asia-Pacific region, in line with ICAO’s global strategy for dealing with climate change.”

 

The scheme is administered by environmental consultancy WSP Environment & Energy.

 

 

Links:

Airport Carbon Accreditation

ACI Europe

ACI Asia-Pacific

WSP Environment & Energy

ICAO

Abu Dhabi Airports Company


 

 

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