Amid World Cup criticism, is it time the sport got greener? | News | Eco-Enterprise

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Accounting tips

In its report, Carbon Market Watch said it was skeptical of the GCC’s effectiveness in offsetting tournament-generated emissions. Doha underestimated the impacts of climate change by omitting a range of emissions from its calculations, he said.

Gilles Dufrasne, lead author of the report, said the carbon credits purchased by the host country come from renewable energy projects that are already operational and profitable.

“That’s why they don’t have a lot of quality because they don’t generate…additional reductions over what would have happened anyway,” he said in an interview.

“It is therefore fundamentally unlikely that their impact will actually offset tournament emissions.”

Qatar World Cup organizers have dismissed Carbon Market Watch’s findings as speculative, saying emissions will be calculated using “best practice” methods after the tournament ends to ensure they are based on existing activities.

But climate analysts have said carbon offsets are being overused as the primary basis for net zero claims for sporting events.

“We basically need to use a patchwork of measures including demand reduction, including renewables and…offsets to some degree. We can’t use any of these measures alone,” said Karim Elgendy, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East Institute, a think tank.

“You don’t start with offsets; you end up with lags.

Need new models

Conservationists have called on FIFA to develop new models for determining where the World Cup will be held in the future.

They say the tournament should not be awarded to countries that require significant infrastructure development and should ensure fans around the world have an equal chance to attend.

“These events could in fact, instead of being seen as a cash cow … be seen as a real opportunity to create lasting positive change, not only socially or economically, but also in terms of sustainability,” said said Greenpeace’s Jreissati.

However, environmentalists and analysts say that will not be the case with the 2026 World Cup, which will take place in three countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Everyone will fly everywhere,” said Elgendy of the Middle East Institute. “There is no promise of any kind of carbon reduction, let alone a net zero carbon event.”

As part of its climate strategy – launched last year – FIFA said it aims to reduce emissions at the events it hosts and plans to be carbon neutral as a sports organization. 2040.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has declared that all Olympic Games must be “climate positive” from 2030 – meaning host cities should remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they do emit during the event.

Jules Boykoff, an American academic and former soccer player, said human rights and environmental impacts should be key considerations in awarding future sporting events.

“We have to make changes, we have to look to a greener future,” said Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University in Oregon. “If not now, then when? If not through these sports…then how?”

This story is published with permission from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, which covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.

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