How should major sporting events be viewed by the yardstick of climate change?
Coline Pavot, Head of Responsible Investment Research, La Financière de l’Echiquier (LFDE) – September 2024
As Paris awakens from its Olympic dream, it’s time to take stock. In terms of medals, France has nothing to be ashamed of compared with previous Olympics, having surpassed its record. Much has been written about the environmental impact of this extraordinary event. The promise of the organisers, which was revised downwards in 2023, was to halve emissions compared with the previous editions in London and Rio. So what happens once the festivities are over? Beyond the Olympic and Paralympic Games, to make the party even better, how can we think about major sporting events by the yardstick of climate change?
Festivities under the spotlight
Air-conditioned stadiums in Qatar, artificial snow at the Beijing Games, the next football World Cup between 3 countries on the American continent… In a context of climate emergency, top-level sports are regularly criticised for their environmental excesses. For an event like the Olympic Games, the two main sources of greenhouse gas emissions are transport (40%), particularly visitors, followed by construction of new buildings (32%)[1]. With 9.5 million tickets sold, 38% of them internationally, the significant carbon impact of spectators coming to the Paris Olympic Games is no exception to the rule[2].
Impact of climate hazards on sporting activities
In addition to the impact of these events on the climate, climatic hazards, particularly heat waves, will have a direct impact on the staging of sporting events, as well as on athletes’ health and performance. A WWF study[3] estimates that global warming could lead to the loss of up to 24 days of sporting activity in a world at +2°C, and up to 2 months in a world at +4°C, disrupting amateur and professional sports. Some practice sites are also threatened by a lack of snow or coastal erosion.
A laboratory for adaptation measures
As Pierre de Coubertin declared, “every difficulty encountered must be an opportunity for new progress”. The climate imperative must therefore push us to change our paradigm in order to design a desirable future for these major events. Their long-term survival depends on it. Reducing the construction of new infrastructure, as was tried in Paris, where 95% of temporary or existing sites are to be used, allocating the majority of tickets to residents of host and neighbouring countries, setting up decentralised fan zones and imposing environmental requirements on sponsors and suppliers are all levers that can be activated to invent a new model for sporting competitions. Without forgetting the social issues surrounding these events, which are also significant challenges for organisers.
The fight against climate change is everyone’s business and the economy as a whole must be mobilised to achieve the objective of the Paris Climate Agreement. LFDE, a signatory of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative since 2021, has been working for several years within the financial industry and with companies to accelerate the transition to carbon neutrality.