Hamburg and Christchurch airports partner up to advance environmental goals

Intercity/international cooperationNews

The Hamburg Airport has partnered up with its counterpart in Christchurch to lower CO₂ emissions and move towards hydrogen. The move is in line with the environmental initiatives of Mayor of Hamburg Peter Tschentscher as it will focus on decarbonisation and development of hydrogen infrastructure.

While the Hamburg Airport and the Christchurch International Airport are more than 18,000 kilometres apart, they see eye to eye on environmental issues. As part of the broader green push, the Hamburg Airport plans to become emission-free by 2035.

Hamburg Airport CEO Michael Eggenschwiler pointed out that “sustainable airport operations with renewable energies are a building block for climate protection in air traffic.” He stressed the importance of focusing on solar and wind power as well as hydrogen.

His counterpart at the Christchurch International Airport Malcolm Johns noted “for some time now we have had monthly online meetings with members of the Hamburg Airport team, where we share information and knowledge and discuss and support each other’s goals and achievements.”

The Hamburg Airport reported that it reached carbon neutrality at the end of 2021 and wants to promote the use of hydrogen in aviation. The two airports plan to decarbonise their operations in the air and on the ground by switching to hydrogen in the long term.

For this purpose, they are planning to build separate infrastructure that will make the switch possible and offer hydrogen storage options. The airport in Hamburg relies on wind power and the one in Christchurch on solar energy.

(Photo credit: Mika Baumeister / Unsplash)