Airport Operator Magazine - Spring
AOA Policy Director, Christopher Snelling, reports on a Department for Transport presentation to the AOA’s Sustainabilty Working Group.
In February members participated in the first post-Covid in-person meeting of the Sustainability Working Group. Held at AOA’s central London office, over 20 members attended in person (with more online).The meeting was an opportunity for members to generally share activities and discuss best practice, as well as having a major focus on key topics.
As part of this DfT joined the meeting to discuss their Call for Evidence on their plan to require English airports to be absolute zero emission for greenhouse gases by 2040. They set out their definition of airport operations for the purposes of the target, and the potential options for exemptions.
Feedback from the meeting was that the DfT carbon paper was a step forward in policy development – with airport operations more clearly defined and exemptions mooted. There is still some confusion introduced when DfT talk about Scope 3 emissions, but it represents some progress.
After the call for evidence responses are assessed, DfT will produce a further consultation paper with more detail on the shape of the proposed scheme or regulation that they intend to utilise.
