Athens International Airport’s Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2025

Athens International Airport announced “ROUTE 2025”, its official commitment to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2025, prior to the target of 2050 set by Europe's Airports in June 2019.

Athens Airport’s commitment was announced during the 7th annual Airport Chief Executives’ Symposium “ACES – Athens”, held on December 4th at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, honoured by the presence of Greek Minister of Tourism, Mr Harry Theoharis, Mrs Alexandra Sdoukou, Secretary General for Energy & Mineral Resources at Ministry for the Environment and Energy, and attended by 200 top executives from the air transport, finance, and tourism sectors.

In the official commitment -which was signed jointly by Dr. Yiannis Paraschis, CEO, Athens International Airport and Mr Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI EUROPE -  Athens Airport, with a focus on 2025, committed to submit to ACI EUROPE:

• By Q2 2020, a detailed Roadmap for the self-production of clean electricity within the airport boundaries via solar power for self-consumption purposes, aiming to cover 100% of the Airport Company's electricity needs, which corresponds to 91.1% of its current carbon footprint.
   
• By Q4 2020, a detailed Roadmap for addressing the remaining 8.9% of its carbon footprint corresponding to direct emissions from fuel consumption onsite (via initiatives such as the use of electric vehicles, biodiesel, heat pumps, etc).

Through this significant, internationally pioneering initiative, Athens International Airport, having already decreased its carbon footprint by more than 40% since 2005 despite the doubling of passenger traffic and becoming accredited at the ultimate level of ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation program - Carbon Neutrality - since 2016, has the goal of becoming the first airport operator in Europe to cover 100% its electricity needs by on-site production from renewable sources and zeroing out its direct emissions from fuel consumption.

On the Athens International Airport’s significant commitment “ROUTE 2025”, AIA’s CEO, Dr. Yiannis Paraschis, stated:

“In the years to come, the climate change issue will increasingly drive European policies in the fields of air transport and tourism, and the travellers’ behaviour as well. Initiatives and self-regulation on environmental sustainability matters are becoming highly critical factors for the competitiveness and development of destinations and of the respective infrastructure and enterprises in the travel chain.

Athens International Airport is today taking the lead through an ambitious, yet feasible, goal; we commit ourselves to implementing “ROUTE 2025”, thus achieving, well ahead of the target set by Europe's airports for 2050, net zero carbon emissions by consuming only clean, renewable electricity, that will be exclusively produced on our premises, and in addition, zeroing out our carbon emissions from fuel consumption (natural gas, diesel, etc.).

This is the target we have just co-signed with ACI-EUROPE, and we are convinced that “ROUTE 2025” fully incorporates environmental sustainability into our future development, thus actively contributing to reducing the ecological footprint of Athens as a destination, as well as to the National Energy and Climate Plan."