Airport Council International awards Monegasque heliport first carbon neutral accreditation
The Monaco Heliport has become the first in the world to achieve carbon neutral status. The landmark occurrence was confirmed by Airport Council International (ACI), the global trade representative for airports around the world. At present, the ACI has 189 accredited members and the Monegasque heliport has just become the first of those to receive accreditation for its carbon neutral status.
The achievement is the culmination of months of hard work undertaken by the Director of Civil Aviation Bruno Lassagne in conjunction with the Counsellor of the Ministry of Equipment, Environment and Urban Planning Marie-Pierre Gramaglia. The pair last year stated their intentions to significantly reduce the harmful emissions from the Monaco Heliport and make the facility more environmentally-friendly, with the ultimate goal of receiving carbon neutral accreditation from the ACI. This month, they achieved that goal.
The heliport was constructed in the district of Fontvieille on land reclaimed from the sea in 1976 and opened by Prince Rainier III. It is the only means of landing an aircraft within Monaco and only has one scheduled destination at the Côte d’Azur Airport in nearby Nice. Fontvieille is home to a number of new building initiatives and last year became a testing ground for a new kind of renewable energy – solar slabs. Instead of glass panels, these slabs are laid directly onto asphalt and are said to be capable of generating a similar amount of energy to traditional photovoltaics.
The achievements at Fontvieille represent part of a wider plan to target environmental concerns across Monaco. Implemented in 2014, Prince Albert II’s Climate Energy Plan (CEP) is an ambitious blueprint for boosting energy efficiency in the principality, reducing the region’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and investing in clean sources of power. Ultimately, the CEP has set itself the target of bringing down Monaco emissions by 50% by 2030 from 1990 figures and achieving complete carbon neutrality before 2050. While that objective may be still some way out of reach, the accreditation achieved by the Monaco Heliport is a firm step in the right direction.