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Former South African President Nelson Mandela once famously said “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite in a way that little else does.”
In the global effort to combat climate change, sport is a key battlefield and testing ground. Mega sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic games, have a significant carbon footprint that needs to be brought down to sustainable levels. They also too often showcase polluting sponsors and provide them with a platform that reaches billions of people.
This needs to change. Sports’ ability to captivate audiences and inspire billions of people around the world makes it the perfect arena to promote positive social and climate progress.
Like a referee or umpire, Carbon Market Watch is keeping a watchful eye on the green claims and strategies of mega sporting events. As a supporter of Team Climate, we applaud high ambition and good efforts but boo greenwashing, foul play and own goals where they occur.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is being advertised as a “carbon neutral” event. This means that its net impact on the climate is zero or negligible. However, our investigation of the available evidence casts serious doubts on this claim, which likely underestimates the tournament’s true emissions levels and climate impact. This is not a harmless exercise, as it misleads players, fans, sponsors and the public into believing that their (potential) involvement in the event will come at no cost to the climate. This investigation objectively assesses the credibility of the “carbon neutrality” claim and identifies where it misleads the public.
Amidst the splendour of the Olympic games lies a sobering reality: the urgent threat of climate change. The 2024 games came to Paris, home of the 2015 legally binding international climate agreement that set a target to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris 2024 organising committee implemented a climate strategy, which was a decent attempt at greening the games. However, an investigation of the efficacy and communication of this plan raised fundamental questions, and it became clear that no Olympic games can truly be compatible with the Paris Agreement’s objectives unless their overall operations are fundamentally reformed.
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