Malta International Airport (MIA) is celebrating a new environmental milestone as it joins 40 of its European counterparts at Level 2 of Airports Council International’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme, it announced on Thursday.

MIA was welcomed to the Reduction Level of the tiered programme, it explained, after having submitted extensive proof of its commitment to managing emissions within its control.

As part of this, the airport successfully demonstrated that its 2019 emissions intensity per passenger was around 30 per cent lower than the average intensity for the previous three years, MIA detailed.

Additionally, at 0.71kg of CO2 per passenger, “MIA’s emissions intensity for 2019 was around half the average intensity of European airport members of the Airport Carbon Accreditation Programme”.

The airport’s Sustainability Manager Justine Baldacchino commented: “Our Journey towards a cleaner and more energy-efficient operation started back in 2016 with the mapping of our carbon footprint”.

“Since then, we have made huge strides in understanding our impact and how we can mitigate it, with environmental sustainability being etched even deeper in our core business strategy”, she continued, while also thanking the team that worked towards the achievement of Level 2 accreditation, undeterred by the challenges of operating within a “harder-to-abate” sector.

Between 2016 and 2020, MIA’s investment in environmental projects, which have supported the company in registering emission reductions stemming from electricity and fuel consumption, totalled around €5 million, it also revealed.

These green initiatives included the installation of photovoltaic systems which generated 2,106,340 kWh of clean energy in 2020; the gradual replacement of old vehicles forming part of the airport fleet with hybrid models some of which emit as little as 36g of CO2/km; and the substitution of equipment and lighting with more energy-efficient alternatives.

Malta International Airport is also said to be eyeing the achievement of carbon neutrality for emissions under its control by 2050; a commitment which was formalised through the signing of ACI Europe’s Net Zero 2050 Resolution in 2019.