Rome Airports Are the First In Europe to Reach Carbon Accreditation Level 4+

The Airports Council International Europe (ACI) has announced that the Airport of Rome, the operator of Rome’s Fiumicino and Ciampino airports, has reached the highest level, Level 4+ ‘Transition’, of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program by becoming the first in Europe achieve such results.

In a press release issued on April 8, ACI Europe explained that to achieve this recognition, airports have to decrease their carbon dioxide emissions in compliance with the global climate objectives, to encourage other participants in taking part actively to reach efficient reductions and to compensate for the remaining emissions with a reliable carbon credit.

Until now, only two other airports in the world, Dallas Fort Worth International in the US and Delhi Indira Gandhi International in India, have achieved the same level of carbon management, AtoZSerwisPlus.ro reports.

According to ACI, the Airport of Rome has continually decreased its carbon emissions since 2011 after receiving the first Airport Carbon accreditation certification.

To speed up the progress in reaching their objectives, the Airport of Rome has defined a scheme to eliminate and reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2030. If this goal is achieved, the airports will be ahead by 20 years of the curve on global climate neutrality goals.

“This noteworthy recognition testifies to our strong commitment to environmental issues and to our willingness to continue tenaciously on this path, convinced of the need to increasingly integrate sustainability and innovation into our core business,” CEO of Airport of Rome Marco Troncone said, commenting on the airports’ achievement.

Airport of Rome contributes to the reduction of emissions of different stakeholders operating at the airport through:

• Providing Sustainable Aviation Fuel to airlines by 2024.
• Promoting electric flexibility at the airport through the installation of around 500 charging stations for electric vehicles and renovating its fleet.
• Building large photovoltaic panels at the airport would reach a capacity of 60 MW.
• Joining the EP-100 global initiative for the better energy use of The Climate Group while aiming to increase the energy production by 150 percent compared to 2016.

The Director-General of ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec said that decarbonization is a costly pursuit for businesses in the most challenging sectors, of which aviation is the main one.

“Moving past these challenges and reaching the highest level of Airport Carbon Accreditation at this time is an exceptional achievement on the part of Rome Airports. I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate and thank each person involved in this success,” Olivier Jankovec said, congratulating the Airport of Rome for their achievement.

Earlier in March, ACI urged European Commission to assure that airports can use €672.5 billion from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility scheme to fund their sustainability and digitalization projects.