Cannes and Saint-Tropez airports to stop using diesel vehicles

Cannes-Mandelieu and Golfe de Saint-Tropez airports
in France today announced that they plan abandoning diesel vehicles to reduce their joint emissions
by more than 50 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The Côte d’Azur airports state that any internal combustion vehicle that cannot be converted to fully electric engines will now be fuelled with biodiesel, which will result in reducing CO2 emissions by 80% over their lifecycle.

Fire engines, refuelling lorries, farm machinery, and the auxiliary power units used to supply electricity to aircraft on stopovers are already fuelled with biodiesel at Cannes-Mandelieu Airport.

This fuel, called ‘HVO 100’, is produced from waste products such as used edible oils, animal fats and by-products from the paper-pulp sector.

Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur says that this is the only internationally recognised biofuel that can be used on its own and meets the EN 15940 standard. Over the entire lifecycle, it notes, this results in CO2 savings of around 80%.

The two airports, which already hold the Airport Carbon Accreditation level 4+ certification, and therefore are extending their efforts to decarbonise their ground handling operations.

For Cannes-Mandelieu airport, which uses 20,000 litres of diesel each year, the switch to biodiesel represents a further saving of 42 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, as one litre of diesel emits 2.67 kg of CO2. This volume represents half of the residual emissions from the airport.

The Golfe de Saint-Tropez airport has made the same commitment, which it will implement when the airport re-opens on March 15. With an annual diesel consumption of 4,000 litres each year, the switch to biodiesel represents a further saving of 8.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.

This new contribution to Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur’s decarbonisation policy extends the environmental gains already made by electrifying compatible vehicles and all ground handling operations, installing anti-smog boxes which reduce the fine particle emissions of combustion vehicles by more than 80%, and removing the gas boilers used to regulate the temperature in the terminals.

“No effort should be spared to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities in our region,” says Franck Goldnadel, chairman of the Board of Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur.

“Far from being the only solutions to be envisaged, technological developments represent opportunities that must be grasped without delay to achieve carbon neutrality as quickly as possible without offsetting. Our roadmap is clear, and we are committed to achieving neutrality by 2030.”