But this story seems to have been missed not only by the Indian press, but the international press too..
What is Carbon Neutrality in the context of Airports ?
Budapest airport became the latest airport to be accredited carbon neutral in April this year. As an industry site explains :
"Airports are at different points on this journey to become cleaner and more efficient. As the centrepoints of a complex web of aircraft movements, technical operations and surface access transport, airports can address their CO2 emissions in a variety of ways. These can include better insulation and energy efficiency, switching to green energy sources, investing in hybrid, electric or gas-powered service vehicles, encouraging employees, passengers & visitors to use public transport, working with airlines & air traffic management to reduce runway taxiing times and implement green landing processes and much more."
Another industry site says : "Not only did these airports measure their carbon footprint (Level 1), managed and reduced their emission (Level 2) and engaged partners and clients to do the same (Level 3), they are now offsetting their own (carbon) emissions" (that is Level 3+ : Carbon Neutral level which the Budapest Airport just achieved).
But thats not the story the media may have missed. What they have missed - or chosen not to highlight anyway, are the factoids below.
India is a World Leader in Airport Carbon Neutrality
What is Carbon Neutrality in the context of Airports ?
 |
| Boeing 757 Air Europe San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives |
"Airports are at different points on this journey to become cleaner and more efficient. As the centrepoints of a complex web of aircraft movements, technical operations and surface access transport, airports can address their CO2 emissions in a variety of ways. These can include better insulation and energy efficiency, switching to green energy sources, investing in hybrid, electric or gas-powered service vehicles, encouraging employees, passengers & visitors to use public transport, working with airlines & air traffic management to reduce runway taxiing times and implement green landing processes and much more."
 |
| Convair 880 165-62 Swissair in flight 13Mar64 San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives |
But thats not the story the media may have missed. What they have missed - or chosen not to highlight anyway, are the factoids below.
 |
| Air plane over Jamuna Future Park 2014 / Aashaa / CC-BY-SA 3.0 |
India is a World Leader in Airport Carbon Neutrality
- Out of 39 Carbon Neutral Airports in the world, four are Indian ! The airports in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai have been accredited as carbon neutral.
- Delhi Airport was the first airport to be accredited carbon neutral in the whole of Asia Pacific !
The developed nations - other than Europe, havent been that interested
- Even today, there is not a single airport that has been declared carbon neutral in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or any of the South East Asian Tigers - or even in some of the richest countries in the world in the Middle East - UAE, Saudia Arabia, and others.
- ONE airport in Australia has been declared carbon neutral - none in New Zealand.
Air Canada Airbus A319-114 on approach to LAX
/ Timo Breidenstein /GNU Free Documentation License.
- In the Asia-Pacific region, other than India and Australia, only one other country's airport has a carbon neutral accreditation - Jordan, which is a poor country, with per capita GDP one-fourth that of the world average.
- In fact, entire continents are able to showcase just one airport each as carbon neutral accredited - North America, South America and Africa !
 |
| Boeing 767 over Mount Rainier, circa 1980s Seattle Municipal Archives / CC-BY-SA 2.0 |
- The country with the largest number of airports in the world - the USA (in North America), has just ONE airport accredited carbon neutral.
As a Continent, Europe leads in Airport Carbon Neutrality
- 30 out of 39 airports worldwide to have received carbon neutrality are in Europe. 10 of these airports are in a single country - Sweden.
- India has the most airports accredited for carbon neutrality after Sweden. The next countries with the most airports accredited are the UK and Turkey - three each.
The History of the Programme
The Airport Council International (ACI), Europe Annual Congress in 2007 saw Europe’s airports commit to reducing their CO2 emissions, with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral. ACI EUROPE commited to developing a tool to help airports achieve this goal. In 2009, it launched the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. Within months, Stockholm Arlanda Airport became the first airport in the world to achieve the highest level of accreditation: 'Neutrality'.
In 2011, Airport Carbon Accreditation was extended to airports in the Asia-Pacific region, in partnership with ACI ASIA-PACIFIC. In 2012, Swedavia became the first national airport group to achieve full carbon neutrality across its suite of 10 airports in Sweden. Airport Carbon Accreditation was extended to Africa in 2013 in partnership with ACI AFRICA. Also in 2013, Airport Carbon Accreditation was judged one of the top 3 low carbon projects for Europe.
The programme was FINALLY launched in North (and South) America in 2014, in partnership with ACI-NA, a full five years behind Europe, and 3 years after Asia Pacific.
The Airport Council International (ACI), Europe Annual Congress in 2007 saw Europe’s airports commit to reducing their CO2 emissions, with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral. ACI EUROPE commited to developing a tool to help airports achieve this goal. In 2009, it launched the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. Within months, Stockholm Arlanda Airport became the first airport in the world to achieve the highest level of accreditation: 'Neutrality'.
 |
| Air New Zealand Boeing 737-219 (ZK-NAR), 1979 Daniel Tanner / CC-BY-SA 4.0 |
The programme was FINALLY launched in North (and South) America in 2014, in partnership with ACI-NA, a full five years behind Europe, and 3 years after Asia Pacific.
No comments:
Post a Comment