All ten airports in Portugal have won ACA 4+ certification, the highest level of the ACI's environmental assessment programme.
This certification recognises that airports have fully accounted and reported direct and indirect CO2 emissions related to their activities and operations, have significantly reduced their direct emissions, offset their residual direct emissions and started to reduce their indirect emissions. ACA 4+ also recognises that airports have set carbon emission reduction targets consistent with a sub-2°C warming scenario under the Paris Agreement.
Portugal thus becomes the first country in the European Union to have its entire airport system (ten airports) ACA 4+2 certified. This is due in large part to the deployment of Vinci Airports' decarbonisation plan. Its ten Portuguese airports have reduced their direct emissions by 35% since 2018.
As part of this plan, Vinci Airports' photovoltaic production programme is currently deployed at all Portuguese airports, with the first unit installed at Faro Airport in 2022. The French firm’s forest carbon sink programme, aimed at sequestering residual emissions (scopes 1 and 2), has also been deployed near Faro, Porto Santo and Lisbon airports.
Scope 3 actions implemented at Portugal's airports in 2022 include the opening of Portugal’s largest electric vehicles charging station at Lisbon Airport, and the first commercial flights with sustainable biofuels (SAFs) at Lisbon, Porto and Azores airports.
Vinci Airports has also announced that OMA's Mexican airports, which joined its network in December 2022, have just received their first ACA level 1 accreditation. Belgrade Airport, which joined the programme in 2022, has been awarded ACA level 2.
"We are very proud that Portugal, where the economy is largely based on international exchanges, has become the first country in Europe to achieve ACA4+ for its entire airport system. I salute the remarkable commitment of our teams, in Portugal and throughout our network, who are acting as pioneers to deploy Vinci Airports' environmental action plan,” said Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of VINCI Concessions and president of Vinci Airports.
Image: Vinci Airports
