VINCI Airports Obtains ACA 4+ Environmental Certification for All Airports in Portugal
VINCI Airports is proud to announce that Portugal's airports have been awarded the ACA 4+ certification, the highest level of the ACI's environmental assessment program1. This certification recognizes 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 (10 airports) ACA 4+2 certified. This unprecedented performance is based on the exemplary deployment of VINCI Airports' decarbonisation plan by Portuguese airports, which have already reduced their direct emissions by 35% since 2018.
As a pillar of this action plan, VINCI Airports' photovoltaic production program is currently being deployed at all Portuguese airports, with the first unit already in activity at Faro airport since 2022.VINCI Airports' forest carbon sink program, aimed at sequestering residual emissions (scopes 1 and 2), has also been deployed near Faro, Porto Santo and Lisbon airports.
Among the scope 3 actions implemented at Portugal's airports in 2022: opening of Portugal’s largest electric vehicles charging station at Lisbon airport; first commercial flights with sustainable biofuels (SAFs) at Lisbon, Porto and Azores airports.
VINCI Airports also announces 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 program in 2022, has been awarded ACA level 2. VINCI Airports is the world's leading contributor to the ACA program.
Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of VINCI Concessions and President of VINCI Airports, declared: "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."
1 ACA - Airport Carbon Accreditation programme is the only certification scheme for airport decarbonisation standards. It is managed by ACI - Airports Council International.
2 Concerns the 10 main Portuguese airports, managed by VINCI Airports under the ANA - aeroportos de Portugal concession.
