Focus on climate

As a company, we accept the role carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases play in climate change. We also believe in the science behind climate change.

We have committed to eliminating all non-emergency related direct carbon emissions within the airport’s direct control, reducing carbon emissions from the electricity we purchase, and managing all other indirect carbon emissions across campus.  

Our commitment to carbon reduction is reflected in our memberships of the Climate Leaders Coalition and the Sustainable Business Council. We’re proud to be an early signatory and strong supporter of the Climate Leaders’ Statement.

We support the global target as established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Paris Agreement 2015 to keep global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees, and we support the New Zealand target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Our own Emissions Reduction Plan reflects this, with our Scope 1 and 2 emissions target to maintain net zero from 2021, and achieve absolute zero emissions in our direct airport-controlled emissions by 2035. This is distinct from the wider airline controlled “in the air” emissions, which represent 99% of all aviation sector emissions.  We have a Stakeholder Partnership Plan for Scope 3 emissions, in which we work with airline partners and others, to map out the role for infrastructure to support the acceleration away from fossil fuel.

Our climate commitment and targets are reflected in our Climate Policy, which is approved at Board level and reviewed every two years.

We're the world's first airport to achieve Level 4 Transformation of the Airports Council International “Airport Carbon Accreditation” programme in 2020. Then again, in 2023 we were the first in a pilot group to achieve ACA Level 5 – the highest level of airport carbon reduction best practice, awarded to us at the UNFCC COP28.

View our Independent GHG Inventory Report for the FY2025 reporting year and our Verifiers Report here.

Our submission to He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission also outlines our commitment to bringing climate action to the forefront.

Projects underway to reduce our emissions include:  

The decommissioning of our last diesel and LPG boilers  
Converting our entire corporate vehicle fleet to electric vehicle (EV) alternatives
Implementing Ground Power Units (GPUs) at all of our jet aircraft stands  
Autonomous vehicle programmes and EV sharing schemes such as Electric Day Pass and Zilch.