This year the 2019 ACI Asia-Pacific/World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition will host an Environment Forum for reviewing Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation as well as Combatting Wildlife Trafficking. The Forum will be held on Tuesday April 2, 2019 from 14:00-16:30.
In the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, the world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only 12 years left for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C. After this, even an increase of half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods and extreme heat for millions of people.
Climate change and its effects on airports
It is well understood that climate change will have far-reaching effects and airports are certainly not immune to them. The increasing severity of storms, weather changes can impact airports operations and infrastructure. Many airports may remain vulnerable to these events as the risks of flooding, flight disruptions and cancellations become more likely.
Airports need to understand the risks and initiate adaptation measures for both existing and new infrastructure, as well as managing critical operations to become more resilient to the changing climate.
As preparedness is cheaper than recovery, this session will review how airports can prepare themselves from the impacts of climate change and become more resilient. The panel will focus on adaptation planning, including what to consider while conducting risk assessments to address potential impacts of climate change, which go beyond potential physical damage to airport infrastructure and operation. These risks may include financial aspects and impacts on insurance premiums. What measures airports can take to mitigate these risks including creating, improving, or adapting their procedures and resilience plans customized to their infrastructure, operations and local conditions.
Wildlife trafficking
Wildlife trafficking is a global epidemic, affecting communities and wildlife populations in every region of the world. The illegal trade of wildlife is the fourth most lucrative global crime valued up to US$20 billion a year. Wildlife traffickers continue to exploit the aviation industry’s fast network to smuggle their product across borders. Over 7,000 species are affected by the illegal wildlife trade, including birds, reptiles, tortoises, apes, elephant ivory tusks and rhino horns.
How can the aviation community unite to address this problem? ACI is committed to develop a framework to fight wildlife trafficking and adopting a zero-tolerance policy towards this trade. Awareness of cross border crimes processes and collaborative information sharing between customs, border control and security are key to make an impact to reduce illegal trade of wildlife.
WAGA Forum
This forum will detail the issues of wildlife trafficking and review the opportunities airports can take to prevent these practices including: raising awareness of illegal wildlife trade among staff, passengers and airport leaders globally; conducting training; reviewing policies and protocols to more efficiently report instances of wildlife trafficking.
The Airport Business Continuity Management Handbook is a collaborative effort between members and service providers in the fields of facilitation, environment, safety and security. It includes guidance on how to address, plan and mitigate the negative impact of disruptions to “normal” airport operations.
The Combatting Human Trafficking Handbook is intended to provide clarity on the role of airports and draws on their experience to tackle the issue of trafficking in persons.
Join us to celebrate the launch of both ACI publications during the Environmental forum afternoon coffee break.
related articles
comments