Future Cairns: Cairns Airport reveals how it can achieve net zero goal by 2025
Cairns Airport has set out an astonishing net zero emissions target. These are the steps the business is taking to help the planet.
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CAIRNS Airport has set out an ambitious push to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
“If we look at the whole of our emissions, 95 per cent are to do with electricity usage,” Alan Dugan, the airport’s general manager property and infrastructure, said.
“What we plan to do is switch to 100 per cent renewable energy, which we’ll be sourcing from projects in Queensland.
“The other five per cent is our direct emissions – fuels that we use on site.”
Lucy Friend, the environment manager for Cairns Airport, said the direct emissions will be offset by carbon sequestration, made possible by the mangrove forests on the airport’s land holdings.
“Until we can reduce are on-site emissions through better technology, we will farm carbon in those natural ecosystems,” Ms Friend said.
“Through our partnership with Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab … we’ve taken 52 core samples of mud across that ecosystem, 350ha of natural area. The lab will analyse that to look at carbon concentration and rate of sequestration.
“That will be scientific, peer-reviewed information that will tell us how much carbon is in those ecosystems and how much is being drawn down every year.
“We work closely with Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation to make sure those ecosystems stay healthy and continue to function.”
The airport has committed to neutralising its scope one and two emissions, those it directly controls, by 2025. Scope three emissions – those that are a not directly controlled by the company, such as waste management and employee commuting – will be the target of the airport’s climate ambitions beyond 2025.
“We’ve committed to defining scope three and measuring it, which is quite a big exercise,” Mr Dugan said.
“We’re working with the rest of the airport community to reduce their direct emissions, which are our scope three.
“Nautilus Helicopters, for example, have announced they’re changing to electric helicopters by 2026. We have to work with partners to put infrastructure in to support that.
“For the region, if we don’t all work together to do our bit, it won’t help the transition to happen.
“The transition will be huge; the infrastructure requirement will be quite significant. There’ll be more jobs and our environment team will definitely grow.”
The industries in FNQ likely to be most disrupted by the need to transition to net zero are transport, construction, agriculture, fishing and forestry.
Carefully managing forestry and land use will be of particular importance, according to CAFNEC director Lucy Graham, because doing so would serve to both avoid and remove emissions through carbon capture.
“Emissions reduction means our lifestyles will have to change because industry will have to change,” Ms Graham said.
“In the 2018 to 2019 financial year, we cleared 680,000ha of forest in Queensland. We can’t aim to drawdown our emissions while continuing to clear forests for housing development.
“We need to think about how we’re going to live differently.”
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Originally published as Future Cairns: Cairns Airport reveals how it can achieve net zero goal by 2025
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