Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Monday, briefed MPs about his Ministry’s initiatives to make airports carbon neutral and reach the target of net zero carbon emissions.

Jyotiraditya Scindia was chairing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting of the Aviation Ministry on “greening airports”.

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Minister of State for Civil Aviation (Gen) V K Singh (Retd) and senior officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.

Scindia told the meeting that India’s aviation sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years. He said that the country has 148 operational airports including 137 airports, two water aerodromes and nine heliports.

To promote sustainable development in the aviation sector and to reduce carbon emission at airports, the Ministry has organized Knowledge Sharing Sessions to standardize Carbon Accounting and Reporting framework of Indian airports, as well as to make awareness on climate change mitigation.

The Ministry has advised all operational brownfield airports and upcoming greenfield airports to work towards achieving carbon neutrality and net zero which inter-alia includes use of 100 per cent Green Energy.

State Governments have been advised to ensure carbon emission reduction measures. The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority has been advised to take into account the cost associated with the green energy use for airports tariff determination. The Ministry has also taken steps to encourage use of sustainable aviation fuel.

The Minister also spoke about initiatives taken for reduction of GreenHouse Gases in air space which include Flexible Use of Airspace, Implementation of Central Air Traffic Flow Management, Implementation of Performance Based Navigation, and Implementation of Continuous Descent Operations.

Scindia said Delhi and Mumbai airports have achieved the highest level 4+ carbon accreditation of ACI. Airport Authority of India (AAI)  has already installed solar power plants at various airports with cumulative capacity of more than 54 MW as on date.

Most of the Airports have been given the target of achieving 100 per cent use of green energy by 2023 and net zero by 2030. He said that having more carbon neutrality airports in India will help the country in achieving its overall target of carbon neutrality/net zero.