Estimating Carbon Footprints of Airports Globally from Traffic & Geospatial Data

Airports and aviation activities amount for more than 2.5% of global carbon emissions and are increasingly exposed to transition risks in the shift to low-carbon economies. Infrastructure investors demand more data on ESG to manage transition risk, but a global coverage of airports’ carbon footprints has been missing. This webcast will present models developed at EDHECinfra to address investor’s demand on airports emissions: 1. A methodology combining reported emissions, geospatial and operational data, to model direct emissions (scope 1) and indirect emissions from energy purchases (scope 2). These models are employed to predict emissions of airports for which equivalent characteristics are available, reaching several thousands. 2. The use of air traffic data that opens the door to the estimate of indirect emissions (scope 3) from cruise as well as landing and take-off for more than 8,000 airports. This is particularly relevant since airports rarely report scope 3 emissions in sustainability assessments. 3. The derivation of intensity metrics (combing number of passengers, amount of flights, revenues, etc.) that allow direct comparison of assets while contributing to the integration of non-financial but material factors in investment decisions. 4. How this methodology can be extended to other infrastructure types as categorized by The Infrastructure Company Classification Standard.