Airports and the environment: Pressure mounts for solutions

In tandem with the exposure of environmental issues in the global media (Paris Agreement/Trump, Amazon rainforest fires, occasional hot summer days in the UK, Greta Thunberg sailing the Atlantic etc) and the rise of pressure groups such as Extinction Rebellion, the air transport business is in the public eye like never before.

This is manifested in the drive towards developing alternative bio-fuels to power aircraft at acceptable costs and sustainably, the pressure for all airports to become carbon neutral (there is an established voluntary carbon accreditation programme which is outlined below) and the ever-increasing demands of politicians, notably in northern Europe, that air travel should be replaced by rail travel wherever possible (for example between Amsterdam and Brussels), and for the introduction of electric aircraft.

Most worrying is the nascent campaign to make passengers feel ashamed, or even guilty about travelling by air. These pressures are set to increase considerably in the following years.

So what are airports doing to combat these pressures and to prove to the public that they have the willpower to face up to the problems and tackle them, rather than burying their collective head in the sand?