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The Carbon Footprint of the Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar
When it comes to choosing host countries for the Football World Cup, environmental criteria are hardly part of FIFA’s selection criteria. Otherwise Qatar, a leading exporter of fossil fuels and also the holder of the world record for CO2 emissions per person - 37 tonnes per capita in 2019 - would not have been chosen.
“ But dubious carbon accounting, coupled with a claim from organizers that the event would be the first “carbon neutral” World Cup, raises questions about an event due to start right after the COP 27. Greenly looked at the official figures and did some fact checking. ”
According to its organizers, the Football World Cup is set to emit an estimated 3.6 million tonnes of CO2, but with little public data to corroborate this claim.
- 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 is the equivalent of the annual emissions of Iceland.
- This is also the carbon footprint of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
- Qatar accounts for the following emissions: 23% of emissions would be due to new construction, 52% to transportation, and 0,5% to broadcasting (perhaps the biggest underestimation) , the rest being due to hotels, catering and events planning.
- However, little data shared by the organizers substantiates the estimated figures
- Some organizations, the NGO Carbon Market Watch has questioned this accounting, claiming that real emissions could be 5 times higher, amounting to approximately 18 million tonnes of CO2.
- Taking a more conservative view, Greenly estimates that the carbon footprint for the Qatar World Cup is approximately 6M tonnes of CO2, taking into account the footprint of the stadium construction, event broadcasting and transportation.
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To claim carbon neutrality, all the emissions accounted for should be offsetted, but there is little evidence that this is the case.
- Organizers have put forward three carbon offset projects officially validated, representing 5% of the stated objective, with projects not officially vetted by Verra or gold Standard, which vouch for their additionality, measurability, auditability and duration in time
- To select its project, Qatar chose projects from the Global Carbon Council, a non independent and not internationally recognized structure, whose criteria do not officially meet the above criteria
Greenly’s data science team redid the math and broke down emissions figures, looking into the carbon weight of Infrastructures, Transportation and Broadcasting of the event. Considering that Doha will welcome 1,200,000 supporters, we can estimate that the carbon footprint per supporter will be at least 5 tonnes CO2e.
Infrastructure emissions would amount to at least 1.6M tons of CO2 (27%)
- Eight stadiums have been scheduled for the World Cup in Qatar, of which only one existed before the country was chosen as a host. All these Stadium
- Because of the heat in the Gulf, Qatar initiated the construction of air-conditioned open-air stadiums for the World Cup, with devastating effects from refrigerating gas, whose greenhouse effect potential is all the more important.
- According to FIFA, the carbon footprint associated with the construction of the 6 new permanent stadiums being built (the last two to be dismantled after the competition) would amount to 200,000 tons of CO2 each. We estimate the real amount would exceed this eight fold.
- New infrastructure meant to outlast the event, such as new shopping malls, new amusement parks, luxury hotels, etc. were not taken into account. More than 40 new hotels have been built in preparation for the World Cup in Qatar (including 10 luxury ones), as well as a gigantic shopping mall (600 stores), many roads to facilitate the transport of tourists, not to mention the new amusement parks near Doha. However, the building sector is one of the most polluting in all countries (in 2014, it alone accounted for 6% of the global carbon footprint).
Travel related emissions account for an estimated 2,4 M tons of emissions (40%)
- With an estimated 2 tons of CO2 for Air travel, the arrival of the 1.2 M supporters expected in Qatar would emit an estimated 2.4 M tons of CO2.
- To this, we would need to account for an additional 160 daily flights scheduled between Doha and neighboring Gulf countries - one plane every 10 minutes.
- Assuming that all daily shuttles are flown with A320 Airbus, which have a capacity of 150 passengers andt that they filled up to 75% of their capacity (the average load of a traditional flight), 160 round-trip flights between Doha and Dubai would be equivalent to 4980 tonnes of CO2e.
- If flights were flown at 100% capacity, they would weigh 3740 tons of CO2e.
Event broadcasting could add another 2 M tons of CO2 into the atmosphere (33%)
- All of our televisions consume electricity. And if electricity itself does not generate greenhouse gas emissions, its production does. Especially when it is produced using fossil fuels. The Qatar Cup will attract 3.2 billion viewers, adding to the footprint. This retransmission adds between 1 and 2 million tCO2e to the footprint.
- According to the FIFA report, the 2018 World Cup recorded 34.66 billion viewer hours (a figure corresponding to the number of viewers multiplied by the number of viewing hours).
- However, about 90% of viewers correspond to “Home-TV” viewers, that is to say individuals who watch games on TV from their homes. Of the remaining 10%, many will follow the competition on TV as well, but from a bar or other public place. The rest will prefer the use of tablets, smartphones or a dedicated platform via the internet.
- To simplify, we considered that the “Home-TV” viewers represented the entire audience, in order to provide a rough estimate of what the World Cup broadcast in Qatar will represent.
- According to Total Energies, the average power consumption of an LCD television is 0.1 kWh per viewing hour, while the global average of the carbon intensity of electricity is 475 gCO2e/kWh.
- Using these three data, we can estimate that the carbon footprint of replaying matches will be between 1 and 2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent alone.
“ Conclusion: Typically, such major events are an opportunity to fast-track infrastructure investments. In the age of climate change, such infrastructure investments are meant to accelerate the energy transition, not worsen climate change. The 2024 Paris Olympic Games, for instance, are set to refurbish existing infrastructures in replacement of more polluting games, so that positive effects may outlast the competition. ”
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