Airport Carbon Accreditation has announced new participants and upgrades to levels of accreditation achieved, with a particular focus on African airports.

Twenty-five airports in Africa now address their emissions within the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, with new entries announced at the ACI Africa/World Annual General Assembly in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The conference host, the Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA) has met all the requirements to accredit two more airports within its network: Rabat-Salé Airport and Fès Saïss Airport, both joining the collective airport climate action at Level 1 ‘Mapping’. In addition, ONDA’s two busiest airports, Marrakesh Menara Airport and Casablanca Mohammed V Airport, succeeded in upgrading to Level 2 ‘Reduction’ – the level at which airports are required to provide evidence of tangible CO2 reductions of emissions under their direct control.

In Tunisia, Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport, operated by TAV Airports, joined the programme directly at Level 2 ‘Reduction’, following in the footsteps of Enfidha Hammamet International Airport, the first African airport to be accredited and also the very first to reach Level 3 ‘Optimisation’. At Level 3, airports are not only achieving scope 1 and 2 CO2 reduction but also encouraging business partners and stakeholders to measure and reduce their own carbon emissions. La Réunion Roland Garros Airport is the only other airport in the African region to ever reach this level of carbon management maturity. There is currently one carbon neutral airport on the continent, Abidjan Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Côte d'Ivoire.

The 25 African airports in 13 countries currently addressing their carbon emissions via the Airport Carbon Accreditation framework jointly cover more than 40% of African air passenger traffic (as per 2019 traffic levels).

Airport Carbon Accreditation has seen an unprecedented growth in new accreditations in the past two years. Globally, there are now 420 accredited airports, with the regional breakdown as follows: Africa (25), Asia-Pacific (65), Europe (214), Latin America & the Caribbean (57) and North America (59). Carbon accredited airports cover almost half of the world air passenger traffic, at 49.4% (as per pre-pandemic traffic levels).

 

Image: Rabat-Salé Airport, courtesy of ONDA