Malta International Airport plc (MIA) has endorsed the Toulouse Declaration on the future sustainability and decarbonisation of aviation, reaffirming its commitment towards reaching net zero status by 2050.

Additionally, the airport has also been a signatory to Airports Council International’s (ACI) NetZero 2050 Resolution since 2019, ACI’s push towards avoiding some of the repercussions of climate change.

MIA, in a statement published on Friday, said it has continued to invest in solar energy in a bid to lower its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, investing more than €2 million in photovoltaic panels, as it targets the achievement of net zero status by 2050, and possibly reaching carbon neutrality even before the target date.

The latest system of photovoltaic panels was installed on the open-air level of Park East, the airport’s new multi-storey car park.

Park East’s new system is made up of more than 1,400 bifacial modules, having the cumulative capacity of 760 kWp, and the system’s full effect will be captured in data recorded in 2022, given that it was commissioned towards the end of 2021.

It is expected that this project will lead to an increase from 2.08 million kWh in 2021 to more than three million kWh in clean energy generated by MIA at the end of the year.

MIA’s Sustainability and Analytics Manager Justine Baldacchino claimed that “Our data shows that electricity is the main contributor to the airport’s GHG emissions.”

“We put a lot of effort into energy and carbon management because we believe that this is where we can have the biggest and most quantifiable impact,” Ms Baldacchino said.

She added that while learning how to more efficiently manage and mitigate emissions “has been a steep learning curve, but our membership of ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme is a means by which we ensure that we can remain on the right track towards becoming net zero by the targeted date.”

In addition to this, MIA has also identified a possible location for its fifth photovoltaic system, with its installation set to take place later this year.

This system is expected to lead to MIA’s airfield to being able to operate entirely on clean energy.

Apart from this, other energy-management initiatives by the MIA include the gradual replacement of existing lighting systems with more energy-efficient ones, as well as the recent introduction of a new Building Management System that will support the airport in optimising energy usage within the terminal through automated air quality and climate control.

For more information on MIA’s environment sustainability efforts, make sure to check out its website by clicking here.