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Govt to make over 90 airports carbon-neutral by 2024: Jyotiraditya Scindia
“One of the first things that I did when I took over as the aviation minister was to put a carbon mapping profile of our airports. Two of our airports, Delhi and Kochi, are already carbon-neutral and India will have 92-93 carbon-neutral airports by 2024,” Scindia said at the All India Management Association national convention.
Over 90 airports in the country will be carbon-neutral by 2024, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday, adding that the total number of airports functioning in the country will rise to 220 in the next five years.
“One of the first things that I did when I took over as the aviation minister was to put a carbon mapping profile of our airports. Two of our airports, Delhi and Kochi, are already carbon-neutral and India will have 92-93 carbon-neutral airports by 2024,” Scindia said at the All India Management Association national convention.
“In the last eight years, the number of airports in the country has increased from 74 to 141 and this will grow up to 220 in the next five years.”
The minister further said that Indian airports will not just achieve the net zero target by 2030, but will likely have over 400 million annual passengers by then. “At present, we have over 200 million domestic and international passengers. But to handle the increase in passengers, the infrastructure on ground has to be improved and increased,” he said. Civil aviation is a highly visible sector, said Scindia. “It’s a very high-profile sector which attracts a lot of attention, but if you look at its contribution to greenhouse gases and carbon emissions...it’s very small... 2% of carbon emissions of the world,” he added. The minister further said: “The one thing that is scarce for every human being is time. No longer do we have the luxury of travelling for 9-10 hours, spending two days on a vacation and travelling the same number of hours back.”
He also stressed on the need to set up an ecosystem in the aviation sector.
“...it should not be about airlines and airports but about flying and training organisations, about cargo, ground handling and drones,” he said. “And the steps to develop such an ecosystem are being firmly taken.”
Earlier, the notion was that you have got to have some base and capacity to be able to venture out and ask for an airport to be in your city, because the economic growth that powers the city and its environment becomes the basis for an airport’s location, the minister said.
“Today that whole paradigm has changed…which means where you have airports, you will have economic growth and therefore the demand situation has completely changed,” he added.
