Organizers of the Paris Olympics are aiming to “halve” CO2 emissions compared to previous Olympic events, a goal celebrated by observers but lacking the details needed for independent verification.
REDUCE EMISSIONS
“Our ambition is to halve the emissions linked to the organization of the Games,” say the organizers.
Paris-2024 thus foresees the emission of some 1.58 million tons of CO2 equivalent, a figure much lower than the 3.5 million tons on average of the previous London-2012 and Rio-2016 Games.
“It’s a nice promise,” Martin Müller, professor of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), told AFP, for whom this type of goal is a novelty.
But “I lack the figures to believe it,” he laments. “As a researcher, I cannot understand the basis on which it has been calculated, the different sources of emissions and the components,” adds the researcher, who would like free access to accurate data.
THREE THIRDS
At the moment, the organizers give forecasts in broad strokes.
The projected emissions are divided into three thirds: one for travel, another for construction works and a third for activities directly linked to the Games, such as accommodation, security, catering, etc.
Gilles Dufrasne, an expert at Carbon Market Watch, praises the true “reflection” of the organizers in choosing to “reuse as many existing infrastructures as possible”.
In fact, the footprint of the construction is limited by the use of 95% of existing or temporary infrastructure, unlike during the criticized World Cup in Qatar.
“The other big issue is the emissions of viewers who arrive by plane,” says Müller. Even if the sites must be accessible by public transport, some will have been reached earlier from afar.
More anecdotally, the organizers are also trying to reduce the footprint of the Games by turning to electricity from renewable sources or by serving spectators “low (emission) carbon” food with less meat.
COMPENSATIONS
“Emissions that cannot be avoided will be compensated,” say the organizers. This consists, for example, in financing the planting of trees to absorb CO2.
But these mechanisms are often poorly or poorly verified, with varying counting methodologies. “Compensation is a measure of last resort,” says Martin Müller.
However, the organizers promise to be rigorous in the selection of projects that “meet the strictest international certification standards” and cite forest restoration as an example, although they do not give many more details at the moment.
POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION?
“Paris-2024 is committed to organizing the first Games with a positive contribution to the climate,” the organizers indicated in old documents still online, a promise based on offsetting more CO2 emissions than will be emitted.
But this notion, criticized by observers for giving the misleading image of an event that will have no impact on the environment, has been removed from the latest announcements.
“There’s been a real rethinking of the way we communicate” and “it’s something they’re really paying attention to,” celebrates Gilles Dufrasne.
AND THEN?
The organizers hope to set a precedent and a “new standard” for future Olympic events, but how to go further?
Researchers, including Martin Müller, advocated in a study published in Nature Sustainability in 2021 for a true revolution: “Considerably reduce the size of the event, rotate the Games between the same cities and apply independent sustainability standards.”
This expert insists on “reducing the number of spectators”, at least “those who come from afar” by plane. Dufrasne, for his part, even envisions a “only televised” event with “rebroadcasts in local stadiums around the world.”