Following last week’s release of the International Transport Forum’s new report ‘Transport Co2 and the Paris Climate Agreement’ urging more action on decarbonising transport, the Airport Council International (ACI) has provided an update on the latest developments among the community of 237 airports in its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.

Regional airports around the world feature highly when it comes to developments across the four levels of the organisation’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme in recent months.

In Europe, 17 airports in France operated by EDEIS Group have become Airport Carbon Accredited, including: Annecy Airport, Auxerre Airport, Bourges Airport, Castellón Airport, Châlon Champforgeuil Airport, Cherbourg Maupertus Airport, Dijon Bourgogne Airport, Le Havre Octeville Airport, Mayotte Airport, Nîmes Alès Camargue Cévenne Airport, Reims Airport, Saint Martin Grand Case Airport, Tarbes Lourdes Pyrénées Airport, Tours Val de Loire Airport, Troyes Airport, Toulouse Francazal Airport and Vannes Golfe du Morbihan Airport.

The addition of these airports into the programme means that France has become the country with the highest number of accredited airports (with a total of 39) in the world.

In the Asia-Pacific region, six new airports have joined the list of those addressing their CO2 in recent months, bringing the total number in the region to 44 airports.

Meanwhile in Latin America and the Caribbean the number of accredited airports has more than doubled in the last six months. Six of the new entrants are located in the Dominican Republic and are owned by VINCI airports, while the two most recent entrants, Curaçao International Airport and San José International Airport are in Costa Rica.

In North America the total number of accredited airports is now 34, thanks to Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, which recently joined the ranks, entering the programme at Level 1 mapping by embarking on its carbon management strategy.

When it comes to the big hitters, two airports became the first in their region to be declared carbon neutral earlier this week. Budapest became the first carbon neutral airport in Central and Eastern Europe, while Amman’s Queen Alia Airport in Jordan has been declared the first carbon neutral airport in the Middle East.

“These latest carbon neutral airports Budapest and Queen Alia provide yet more encouraging news of how a good idea – such as well-structured voluntary climate action by industry – can cross the world and stimulate others to step up to the challenge,” said Niclas Svenningsen, who heads the Climate Neutral Now initiative at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in Bonn, Germany.

“Meaningful climate action really depends on that proactive spirit and it is heartening to see how engaged the airport industry is in climate action – specifically to address its own emissions in the equation,” he added.

Header image: A map of the number of airports that are Airport Carbon Accredited in each world region; Inset image: Mr. Kjeld Binger CEO, Airport International Group (operator of Queen Alia International) and Mr. Seow Hiang Lee, President, ACI Asia-Pacific (& CEO, Changi Airport Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd)

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