Airports Authority of India (AAI) being the sole Air Navigation Service (ANS) provider and operator of Airports across the country is consistently honoring the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By implementing cost effective carbon mitigation action to conserve environment and reduce its adverse impact on the society and the larger ecosystem, AAI is committed towards the reduction of Green House Gas (GHG).
Airports Council International (ACI), an organisation representing the world`s airports has announced that four AAI airports — Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata; Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar; Lal Bhadaur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi and the Trivandrum International Airport — have successfully completed the first step of instituting an environment policy and carbon mapping as per the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) Programme. The policy includes a framework to reduce emissions and develop a Carbon Footprint mapping for the airport’s own emissions which are under its control.
In line with national as well as global climate change initiatives, AAI has initiated GHG management program at four of these airports with an objective of ensuring sustainable development of the aviation industry. The Airport Carbon Accreditation programme has been developed and launched by ACI. It is a voluntary Global Carbon Management Standard for Airports. The aim of Airport Carbon Accreditation is to encourage and enable airports to implement best practices in carbon management with the ultimate objective of becoming carbon neutral.
Achievement of accreditation for carbon mapping is indeed an example of great team work. With this achievement, AAI has set up a new benchmark towards fulfilling environment obligations by reducing its carbon footprint. Going forward, AAI is focusing on energy conservation and exploring alternative solutions for generating green energy. AAI also aims to increase its solar power generation capacity to 68MW by 2020.