Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the missed environmental targets at Cardiff Airport?
I would like to take this opportunity to address a misunderstanding regarding a claim that the Airport has missed a net zero target. Under the terms of the Rescue and Restructure grant, the Airport was required to provide a commitment by 31 March 2023 to becoming carbon neutral, which it has done. The target was not to achieve carbon neutrality by 2023.
Cardiff Airport is committed to its business and infrastructure becoming carbon neutral, however, due to the current economic climate it is extremely challenging for any regional airport to achieve the objective of achieving Net Zero by 2050 across all of its operations. Despite this, I am pleased to advise that the Airport has reduced carbon emissions from its ground operations to 700 tonnes of CO2 annually, with an aim to reduce this further in the coming years.
The Welsh Government’s strategy for the Airport aims to encourage the development and local adoption of more sustainable aircraft propulsion technologies and to reduce carbon emissions from the Airport’s infrastructure and will enable the Airport to continue on its path to net zero.
The Airport has committed to the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and to offer this to airlines at Cardiff Airport as soon as practicably possible. However, we see SAF as an intermediate carbon reduction solution, as the industry looks to the development of new zero-emission aircraft, such as hydrogen-fuelled and electric powered aircraft.
The Airport has already undertaken an Energy Audit to identify the Energy Conservation Measures and will be updating and publishing a new version of its environmental flightpath in due course which will map out its pathway to Net Zero.
My officials continue to work with the UK Government and Cardiff Airport to reduce the environmental impacts of aviation.