Infrastructure investors are increasingly concerned that carbon emissions and transition risks are not being integrated into airport asset-price judgments, according to the latest research.
Transition risks – the combination of the policy, legal, market and regulation challenges arising from climate change – have climbed the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda since COP21, says infrastructure investment specialist EDHECinfra. However, it warns that airports’ publicly reported carbon emissions are still limited, at a time when investors need ESG data about assets’ climate-change impact in order to work out their risk exposure.
EDHECinfra’s study, Carbon Footprints and Financial Performance of Transport Infrastructures, reveals that ‘carbon intensity’ is not currently a significant factor in airports’ financial performance, once traditional pricing factors such as size and profit are taken into account. It says that data on Scope 1 and 2 emissions is scarce and difficult to benchmark, and “almost no one reports Scope 3 emissions”.
As part of its research, EDHECinfra has devised a methodology that uses geospatial and traffic data to predict Scope 1 and 2 emissions and derived Scope 3 emissions from cruise, landing and take-off for more than 8,000 airports across the US, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.