Welcome back, readers! Today we will be focusing on environmental pollution produced by one of the world’s most popular sporting events; the quadrennial FIFA World Cup! I am sure that many of us here are avid football fans who would do anything to show support for our favourite football clubs and players. From travelling to another country to watch the matches live, to purchasing merchandise of the teams and players we support, to sitting in front of our televisions at ungodly hours to spectate the matches; we are all supporting and contributing to the FIFA World Cup industry in some way. Thus, it is important for us to be aware of the ecological footprints and environmental impacts that our actions leave behind, as we often do not realise it.
source: Marketplace, 2018
According to FIFA’s Greenhouse Gas Accounting reports, the FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2018 resulted in “2.1 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions… equivalent to the emissions from around 456,500 cars over one year” (sportanddev.org, 2019). The reports further supports what we have learnt in previous blog posts, where international, inter-city and intra-city travel accounts for 74% of the carbon emissions and pollution. Accommodation, production and shipping of merchandise, as well as food and beverages sold in the stadiums are also significant contributors of environmental pollution during FIFA World cup events (FIFA Greenhouse Gas Accounting Report, n.d.). Thus, it is indubitable that the FIFA World Cup produces a massive ecological footprint consisting of the different producers of pollution as seen in the picture below. Hence, it plays a part in aggravating climate change through enhanced greenhouse effect produced by athropogenic factors.
source: CO2 Living, 2019
As climate change becomes an increasing concern in today’s world, there is a “need for sustainability and promoting a green ethos to the world cup” to “boost a potential host country’s bid” (International Environmental Technology, 2019). While Germany was able to successfully create the first ever carbon-neutral World Cup in 2006 which consisted of “free public transport for fans, free bicycle parking and multiple stadiums using solar power and rainwater collection” (International Environmental Technology, 2019), it is extremely challenging for future hosts to keep up with this sustainability as the massive scale of a World Cup event requires tonnes of energy-intensive resources. This was evident in the 2010 South Africa World Cup four years later, which produced emissions eight times more than Germany’s mainly due to the “vast distances between South Africa’s host cities and the lack of a green transport infrastructure” (Smith, 2009).
While there is little we can do as mere spectators to directly decrease the incredibly large ecological footprint produced by the FIFA World Cup, it is still imperative for us to educate ourselves on this matter and be aware of the severity of environmental pollution. We are definitely hopeful that there will be more sustainable efforts created by future organisers and host countries of the FIFA World Cup to ensure that less footprints will be produced by football. Look forward to our next post where Eunice will be sharing more about this issue as a die-hard Liverpool fan!
Signing off,
Natasha
References
CO2 Living. (2019). Reduce Your Carbon Footprint : 7 Instant Ways – CO2 Living. [online] Available at: https://co2living.com/reduce-your-carbon-footprint-7-instant-ways/.
FIFA Greenhouse Gas Accounting Report (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/greenhouse-gas-accounting-report.pdf?cloudid=bs36nsonccbtfs5v7ppu.
International Environmental Technology (2019). How Does the World Cup Impact the Environment? [online] Envirotech Online. Available at: https://www.envirotech-online.com/news/environmental-laboratory/7/breaking-news/how-does-the-world-cup-impact-the-environment/46348.
Marketplace. (2018). FIFA World Cup by the numbers – Marketplace. [online] Available at: https://www.marketplace.org/2018/07/13/fifa-world-cup-by-the-numbers/.
Smith, D. (2009). Football to footprints: World Cup’s carbon impact. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/nov/27/football-world-cup-carbon-footprint [Accessed 22 Sep. 2020].
www.sportanddev.org. (n.d.). Environmental sustainability and the Women’s World Cup | sportanddev.org. [online] Available at: https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/environmental-sustainability-and-womens-world-cup#:~:text=The%202018%20FIFA%20Men.