Airport Carbon Accreditation

HONG, Seock-Jin, Professor at BEM (Bordeaux Management School)

Airport Carbon Accreditation is adapted in June 2008, annual meeting of ACI (Airports Council International) Europe, carbon management certification standard for airports and launched at the 2009. In November 2011, Airport Carbon Accreditation was extended to Asia-Pacific, in cooperation with ACI Asia-Pacific.

 

The program independently assesses and recognises the efforts of airports to manage and reduce their carbon emissions with four levels of award: 'Mapping', 'Reduction', 'Optimisation' & 'Neutrality'. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2001), aviation contributes to 2% of global manmade CO₂ emissions. It is estimated that airport activities account for up to 5% of total aviation emissions. Along with other aviation industry stakeholders, airports are seeking to address the challenge of climate change and have developed a wide range of activities to reduce carbon emissions linked to airport operations. These emissions are mainly stemming from energy use in airport buildings and infrastructure, transport to/from airports, airside vehicles, aircraft ground movements and energy consumption and refrigerants.

Airports must have carbon footprints independently verified in accordance with ISO14064 (Greenhouse Gas Accounting). Evidence of this must be provided to the administrator together with all claims regarding carbon management processes which must also be independently verified.

 

When considering the emissions from aircraft within the airport perimeter and on final approach and initial departure, Airport Carbon Accreditation uses the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) definition of the Landing-Take Off cycle and requires airports to comply with these definitions.

 

The airport is a uniquely complicated space, typically bringing together hundreds of companies, thousands of vehicles and millions of passengers. Airlines, air traffic control, ground handlers, baggage handlers, catering companies, refueling trucks, passenger shuttle transport, airport maintenance services, emergency services, police, border control, retailers – all of these have a place at the airport.



Since the 1970’s airports have been carrying out environmental management programmes dealing with monitoring air quality, water management, noise mitigation and biodiversity management. Now, in the context of climate change, different initiatives are underway to help lower carbon dioxide emissions at the airport. The first step of ACA is to determine emissions sources within the operational boundary of the airport company. Calculate the annual carbon emissions. Compile a carbon footprint report. Engage an independent third-party to verify the carbon footprint report.

The second step is to provide evidence of effective carbon management procedures. This step is to show that reduction targets have been achieved. The management procedure has a low carbon/low energy policy along with a senior committee or body has responsibility for climate change/carbon/energy matters. The procedure show how it communicates emissions performance to relevant stakeholders. And stakeholders can monitor consumption of fuel & energy.

 

At the third step is to fulfill all the requirements of ‘Mapping’ and ‘Reduction’ to widen the scope of its carbon footprint to include a range of Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions to be measured include: landing and take-off cycle emissions, surface access to the airport for passengers and staff and staff business travel emissions.

 

Finally, carbon neutrality is when the net carbon dioxide emissions over an entire year is zero. It means that the airport absorbs the same amount of carbon dioxide as it produces. Achieving carbon neutrality for an airport is in almost all cases impossible without external help.

 

For activities outside the direct control of the airport company, Airport Carbon Accreditation also takes account of collaborative engagement with stakeholders such as airlines, air traffic control, ground handlers and public transport, to help guide or influence their activities on the airport site to lower carbon emissions.

 

64 airports in Europe have all become Airport Carbon Accredited including Rome, Paris, Frankfurt, London-Heathrow and etc. 5 airports in Asia-Pacific accredited including Abu Dhabi International Airport, Bangalore International Airport Ltd, Singapore Changi Airport, and Mumbai International Airport. Among 59 European airports, 18 accredited the level one (Mapping), 18 airports accredited the level two (reduction), 8 airports the level three (optimization) and 10 airports including Oslo, Milan, Stockholm and etc. level four (neutrality). In Asia-Pacific, Mumbai accredited the second level and the other airports got the first level of accreditation. From this accreditation, carbon dioxide reduces 414,128 ton (2011-2012) in Europe and 497,249 ton in Asia-Pacific.

 

ACI EUROPE is the European region of Airports Council International, the only global association of airport operators. Based in Brussels, Belgium, ACI EUROPE represents over 400 airports in 46 European countries, accounting for over 90% of commercial air traffic in Europe. ACI EUROPE member airports welcome over 1.5 billion passengers, 18 million metric tonnes of cargo and more than 20 million aircraft movements every year. www.aci-europe.org

ACI Asia-Pacific is the Asia-Pacific region of Airports Council International and has 96 members operating over 510 airports in 42 countries. In 2010, airports in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions handled 1.5 billion passengers, 37.7 million tonnes of cargo and 13.6 million aircraft movemen