‘Greenwashing’ mars Qatar’s carbon-neutral World Cup promise
When Qatar was awarded hosting duties for the biggest event in football, the Gulf nation promised to host “the first carbon neutral World Cup”. While organisers have introduced several green initiatives, environmentalists accuse the event’s governing body of “greenwashing” its environmental claims.
Hosting a football World Cup tournament may be good for fans, players and sponsors, but it’s rarely good for the planet. The 2022 World Cup due to start on November 20 in Qatar has already received bad publicity over migrant rights issues. Now, environmentalists are criticising the competition over its devastating evironmental impact.
With its recently built air-conditioned stadiums and 150 daily flights to bring in fans, the 2022 World Cup has been slammed as one of the biggest environmental fiascos in the competition’s history.
In January 2020, Qatar promised to make the 2022 tournament the first “carbon neutral” World Cup. In September of that year, the organising committee detailed a roadmap to meet the challenge. “Our goal is to offset all greenhouse gas emissions while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. A carbon-neutral tournament is delivered through a four-step process : awareness, measurement, reduction and offsetting,” said the committee in a statement.
Organisers planned to use large quantities of renewable energy and environmentally responsible materials, as well as adopt carbon offsetting measures. The World Cup in Qatar “will change the way future FIFA World Cup competitions and other sporting mega-events are organised,” the statement added.
“This promise of carbon neutrality is absolutely not credible,” said Gilles Dufrasne, lead author of the Carbon Market Watch report published in May 2022 examining Qatar’s claims. “This is a blatant example of greenwashing.”
In June 2021, a FIFA report indicated that the 2022 World Cup would produce up to…
Source : france24
