European Airports Soar Towards NetZero: 303 Airports Unveil Bold 2050 Emission Plans
Lately, The Association of European Airport Operators, ACI Europe unveiled the plan on 303 European airports to achieve NetZero carbon emissions by 2050, clearly showing that it testified that these airports are committed to making sustainability a reality for the aviation industry.
ACI Europe has highlighted in its news release that these 303 airports have taken concrete actions on this ambitious target, while 118 of the total have further set more challenging targets to reach NetZero by 2030 or earlier after attainment of concrete deeds, and handling, in total, 80% of Europe’s air passenger traffic.
First launched in 2019, the ACI Europe Resolution on NetZero is now an annual exercise, continually seeing new airports join and ambitions raised. The latest has added a new timeline requirement for all airports joining in publishing roadmaps within one year – ideally in line with the new 2022 UN Guidance on net zero pledges: According to it, ‘for non-State entities, their NetZero pledges are globally supported by publicly disclosed, credible action plans.’ All this has resulted in over 80 roadmaps being produced from 303 airports operating in 36 countries, published on the ACI Europe website as an act of transparency and accountability in the way forward for the industry to reach NetZero.
The ACI Europe also states that without a doubt, the evidence of successful joint industry climate action can be found in the airport industry, how the numbers of airports taking part in reducing emissions annually, and, consequently, the numbers of successful emissions cuttings also annually under the Airport Carbon Accreditation program continue to rise. In sum, 290 airports in all of Europe are declared as having a level of carbon management, of course, and obtained carbon-managed certification. And 47 of that lot of airports.
In the latest reporting period, from May 2022 to May 2023, the airports managed to avoid over 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Building on this, ACI Europe announced a new tier of accreditation, Level 5, with the December 2023 accreditation document at the same time publishing the pioneering Level setting a decarbonisation framework to then officially certify airports that had achieved and would maintain net-zero carbon balance for emissions within an airport’s control. The demands for mapping, influencing, and reporting for all other emissions (Scope 3) are free.
Finally, Level 5 accredited airports undertake that NetZero carbon will be achieved across all three scopes by 2050. Thirteen European airports have so far attained this prestigious accreditation. ACI Europe and its member airports would like to declare again total commitment to ensuring a NetZero aviation future and supporting the vision of the European Commission on a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, as well as the EU Green Deal.
