Endorsements
supporters

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, in line with ICAO’s global strategy for dealing with climate change.

The recovery of European aviation goes hand in hand with ambitious measures to address the sector’s environmental footprint. The bold vision and determination shown by the airport industry through their Airport Carbon Accreditation programme is a standard striving for tangible solutions whose further take-up by airports around Europe I can only encourage. This collective, industry-led voluntary effort is making a measurable difference, delivering effective carbon savings each year. It also serves as a powerful catalyst to bring forward the efforts of the wider aviation sector. More than ten years into the programme, accredited airports are ensuring their businesses can emerge from the crisis actively accelerating the transition to cleaner, safer and more sustainable air transport.

I welcome the initiative by ACI Europe, and taken up by its regional partners, for airports to be proactively addressing and reducing their carbon emissions. It is an outstanding bottom-up action from within a sector that is only becoming more visible in terms of its impacts on climate change, and airports are acting to contribute to reduce the aviation’s total climate impacts. By airports working their way up through multiple levels of certification, Airport Carbon Accreditation brings together their individual efforts and leads to significant actual emissions reduction collectively. With airports playing host to so many other companies, the last years have shown that the programme has a leadership effect, as airlines, air traffic controllers, retailers, passengers and surface transport also get involved to lower their CO2 emissions on the airport site. I congratulate ACI on the momentum they have achieved with this – a credible industry-led climate change initiative that began here in Europe has expanded to bring broad action from airports around the globe.

To achieve the deep transformation needed for sustainable development and stabilization of global temperature, we must require commitments and participation from all sectors and levels of society. Airports have been severely hit by the Covid-19 crisis and yet, they are continuing their efforts to map and reduce their CO2 emissions year by year, as well as to engage their business partners in this endeavour. The programme went even further this year by introducing two new more ambitious levels, aligned with global climate goals. This is encouraging. I commend airports for this leadership; a signal that can set an example for others to follow with ambitious climate action.