Ye
live from the
[shutter sound]
OK, not really, but that would be cool, right?
But that flight from Toronto to Beijing would add tonnes
of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
You know, that stuff that causes climate change?
Turns out, I actually wasn't invited, but still feels good
to be green, you know?
In all seriousness, though, I have been wondering how much
do the
♪ [light]
I'm Abigail Dove, and this is
The Olympic Carbon Footprint.
According to the United Nations, climate change is the defining
crisis of our time.
Large events like the
create a lot of climate change, causing greenhouse gas
emissions. Historically, the Games
have had a large carbon footprint.
[slap sound]
Organizers say
negative environmental impacts
and lower the overall carbon footprint.
Being seen as more green has become central
to the
Environmental sustainability is even in the
and in 1996, the IOC declared
environmental protection as the third pillar
of the
existing pillars of sport and culture,
but have the games followed through with their promises?
To get to the bottom of this question...
♪ ♪
..I turn to a few experts.
Hi, I'm Sven Daniel Wolfe.
I'm a human geographer and I work on sporting events
and sustainability.
I'm Christine Nesbitt,
and I strive to make
better through urban planning.
Hi, I'm Mac Ross and I'm an academic
who works on
Abigail:
Past Olympic hosts have been criticized for building big,
expensive venues that go unused after the games are over.
Like these ones from Rio and Athens.
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However, there are also examples of venues that
continue to be used by their communities far beyond
the games like the Richmond Oval from Vancouver 2010.
The reason it's successful is because they planned
for it to be a community sports hub,
but to like, temporarily be the speed skating oval.
Or the Water Cube from the
has been turned into the Ice Cube for this year's games.
The transformation of the cube from water to ice is one
of the many ways Beijing organizers are saying
they're reducing the potential carbon footprint of the games.
Another is a natural CO2 refrigeration system that
is being used in most of the Beijing 2022 ice venues.
This is a greener way of keeping things
cold enough indoors.
Chinese officials say it's the first time this technology
will be used for an
They also say their tree planting program will help
offset carbon emissions.
Offsetting emissions is a way to try and balance out
how much carbon dioxide is emitted.
Not all offsets are created equal, and it can be hard
to calculate and track just how much CO2 needs
to be balanced out,
but the aim, according to some Chinese officials,
is for the
Critics are skeptical.
For one, in order to have enough snow for many
of the mountain events, Beijing will have to rely
on artificial snow making.
That process consumes a lot of water and electricity,
which can lead to greater carbon emissions.
One estimate is that snowmaking for the games two outdoor
venues would require up to 500 million gallons of water.
An
so that's...
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..just over 757 and 1/2
[boing]
It will be hard to know if the government of China
and the 2022 organizers will follow through on their promises
until after the Games and researchers say
by the time they get around to investigating them...
Well, that mega event has moved on to a different city.
The IOC told
to put out a pre-game sustainability report
in mid-January and their post-game report will
be published approximately six months after the Games.
OK, so how bad are the
It's hard to come up with a definitive measurement,
but we can get a sense if we look at past carbon footprints.
Carbon footprint. In basic terms,
it's the overall greenhouse gas emissions created
by a single person, an activity, a company,
or in this case, an event.
It's measured in the amount of carbon dioxide estimated
to be released into the air.
The more carbon dioxide released, the bigger the impact
on climate change.
It's a tough thing to calculate, but it's one way of judging
how green something is.
Take the
At the time, it was marketed as the greenest games ever.
It's been estimated that between 2005 to 2010,
the planning, the construction, and all the activity surrounding
the actual games, including travel, created 278,000
tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Even though Vancouver's numbers were on the lower end,
according to the online calculator tool
provided by the
278,000 tonnes
is about the same as fully charging...
33,816,655,716 smartphones.
All of that for the greenest games?
OK, but if the critics say the
is too large, what are their solutions?
We built that system and we could build it
a different way, um...
but we cannot build the natural environments or the biosphere
in a different way, and we don't value it,
in my opinion, enough.
Smaller Games. Researchers have found that
the
over time.
They think part of that might be because...
The Games have been getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
One way to decrease the overall footprint
would be to have smaller games.
That could mean fewer sports featured,
fewer athletes attending, fewer new buildings being built,
and fewer tourists flying in.
But that would also mean fewer opportunities to showcase
athletes and fewer opportunities to raise money
for international sport.
Another suggestion? Fewer Host Cities.
What we could do, for example, is make sure that
the
Moving the games from city to city has one
of the biggest impacts on the environment,
especially since new buildings
and other construction has to happen.
Anything that's more permanent than what
we have today is a step towards something better.
Beyond Beijing 2022's commitments, the IOC
has committed to making all
from 2030 onwards.
Climate positive means an activity goes beyond being
carbon neutral and actually creates an environmental
benefit by removing even more carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere,
but not everyone agrees on how climate positivity
can be achieved.
As part of the strategy, Paris 2024 organisers say
they will reduce CO2 emissions in line with
the
the Games influence to develop long term
carbon offset projects.
So at the very least, the games of the future will continue
to make promises to lower their carbon footprint,
and their critics will continue to try
and hold them accountable for those commitments.
For
and this has been
Here are some of the experts and research resources
we used while making this explainer video.
First off, I'd like to thank the four experts
I interviewed, Christine Nesbitt,
Mac Ross, and Sven Daniel Wolfe
who all appeared in this video,
and a special thanks to David Owen, Chief Columnist
at insidethegames.biz, whose interview
provided important insight.
We gathered information and reference data
from a variety of sources,
including the
and various
as well as studies published in academic journals like,
Nature Sustainability, The Lancet,
and
plus reporting from outlets like, the
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