Carbon Market Watch, a non-profit organization, argued in a study that the 2022 FIFA World Cup’s organizers underestimate “the carbon footprint”, and are adopting “offsets” that cannot be proven to reduce emissions elsewhere.
The World Cup is the latest in a long line of athletic events, including the Beijing Winter Olympics, that claim to be “carbon neutral” by purchasing “offsets,” which are credit purchases aimed at neutralizing pollution from the event by avoiding emissions at various locations.
Experts believe that in order for this to work, as many greenhouse gases as possible must be effectively eradicated from the globe, with “offsets” being used exclusively to trade carbon that cannot be reduced by adopting environmentally friendly measures during the World Cup.
32 national teams will play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup over four weeks in Qatar during November and December 2022, with an estimated 1.5 million fans expected.
According to Carbon Market Watch, the World Cup in Qatar is expected to emit 3.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, based on estimates released by the organizers. This includes direct and indirect emissions from the accommodation, infrastructure, construction, and travel.
The construction of a temporary stadium that could be totally removed after the competition created 438,000 tons of carbon dioxide, according to organizers. However, the six additional new stadiums that will be used after the World Cup will only contribute a small portion of the tournament’s emissions, totaling about 206,000 tons of carbon.
Carbon Market Watch explains that measurement in this regard has been adopted based on “the use of participation, that is, dividing the number of tournament days by the estimated age of the stadiums to reach the share of total emissions.
A spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee, responsible for the delivery of the World Cup, said the country’s commitment to a carbon-neutral World Cup should be “recognized, rather than criticized” and that the CMW criticisms were “speculative and inaccurate”.
Qatar, which will host the World Cup this year, is keen to concentrate its efforts on ensuring that no “hard to get rid of” residues remain after the tournament, including all emissions associated with stadium construction, which will increase the World Cup’s carbon footprint by 1.4 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to annual emissions released by 180,000 residences in the United States.
