Many events claim that they are carbon neutral. The reality is that they are far from that...
This Scientific American piece explores the claim that the World Cup is carbon neutral.
As you can see from the headline, they don't quite agree with that claim.
The term 'greenwashing' is used.
A small extract shows the various strands that need to be accounted for in any calculation of carbon footprints:
In addition to the carbon cost of the stadiums, Qatar expects to see a whopping 1,300 daily flights to and from the country during the World Cup. But that’s not the only source of airplane emissions. The grass seeds to give rise to the tournament’s pristine pitches have been flown in from North America on climate-controlled planes. And these fields won’t water themselves. The groundskeepers who maintain the eight stadium pitches, as well as the 136 practice fields, douse each field with 10,000 liters of desalinated water every day in the winter. In the summer the pitches require a whopping 50,000 liters each. The energy-intensive desalination process—necessary in Qatar because of the country’s negligible surface and groundwater supplies—only adds to the carbon footprint.This BBC video also explores the same area. This was used in assemblies at my school earlier in the week as we started our energy-saving drive.
This article provides some statistics.
Source: FIFA
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