How does Beauvais airport go about reducing its CO2 emissions?

This news will undoubtedly appear to its detractors as a “drop of water” in an ocean of pollution… However, Beauvais airport is increasing its efforts to reduce its CO2 emissions and erase its image as a “polluter”.

Recently passed ninth among French airports in terms of passenger traffic (with more than 6 million of them welcomed in 2024, compared to 5.6 million in 2023) the airport of Beauvais-Tillé (Oise) announced this week that it had reached level 4 of Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) certification, a program of voluntary commitments to reduce CO2 emissions.

The latter “certifies and rewards the long-term efforts made by airports to reduce their carbon emissions”.

At the level of “Charles de Gaulle, Lyon or Marseille”

While it had met all the requirements of previous levels in the past (ACA 1, 2 and 3), this new level reached allows the Oisien airport to rise to 6th place among French airports in the same stratum.

“We are therefore proud to join such large-scale airports as Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Lyon and Marseille! », comments Anthony Martin, the executive chairman of Bellovawhich has operated this airport since October 1, 2024.

And the latter specifies that this is “a level consistent with the requirements of the Paris Agreement” (which sets at + 1.5°C the threshold not to be exceeded by 2035 in relation to the reference year 2017).

One in two passengers already access the terminals by bus

In Beauvais now, 51% of passengers (i.e. more than one in two visitors) take public transport to reach its terminals. Among these, 40% already opt for its rapeseed bus service.

Which would represent “ 31,000 tonnes of CO2 less per year compared to access by individual vehicle,” according to Bellova.

We will of course say that it is never enough, but much had already been done to control the trajectory of energy expenditure.Airplane power supply when they are on a stopover, switching to electric for 30% of its assistance vehicles on the runways… The airport has also “expanded the scope of its carbon footprint in order to include all indirect emissions, such as business travel or the treatment of industrial waste. Finally, its managers assure that they have “provided proof of the commitment of third parties to the process (airlines, air traffic control, service providers, road services, etc.)”

Paris-Beauvais aims for ACA 4 + accreditation

All these actions taken together have only one objective, to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and thus obtain even higher certification. “We are now targeting the highest levels of accreditation (4 + and 5),” says Anthony Martin. What will convince opponents of the development of air traffic at Beauvais airport? Nothing is less certain…

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