South Africa tournament’s emissions to be eight times amount in Germany the last time around
Africa’s first football World Cup will generate 2.75m tonnes of carbon emissions, one of the biggest environmental impacts of any sporting event in history, a study has found. The finals in South Africa are expected to have a carbon footprint eight times that of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, even before long-haul international travel is taken into account.
The main reasons for the discrepancy are the vast distances between South Africa’s host cities and the lack of a green transport infrastructure.
The estimated output from South Africa is 896,661 tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to the optimistically entitled Feasibility Study for a Carbon Neutral 2010 Fifa World Cup, commissioned jointly by the South African and Norwegian governments. Another 1,856,589 tonnes will result from fans travelling from around the world, making the World Cup’s footprint the biggest of any major event aiming to be “climate neutral”, the report said.
It cites the geography of South Africa as the main culprit, forcing players, officials and supporters to travel great distances between the 64 matches spread across nine host cities. South Africa is five times the size of the UK. The distance from Cape Town to Johannesburg is 880 miles, the same as London to Warsaw, and it would take about 17 hours to drive.
South Africa’s transport systems are also less eco-friendly than in many countries. “For inter-city transport … distances between matches in South Africa are much greater than in Germany, and the lack of high-speed rail links means that most visitors will fly multiple times between matches, leading to much higher transport emissions,” the report said. Within cities, they will use hired cars or buses, because there is no underground or light railway alternative.
But getting there will be the biggest contributor to the total of 2,753,250 tonnes of carbon. International transport represents 67.4% of emissions, intercity transport 17.6%, intracity transport 1.4%, stadium construction and materials 0.6%, stadium and precinct energy use 0.5%, and energy use in accommodation 12.4%.
The report said carbon offset programmes to counter the World Cup’s impact would cost between $5.4m and $9m (£3.3m to £5.4m).
It called for the early implementation of carbon offset programmes from football’s governing body, Fifa, the local organising committee and the South African government. These should be visible during the event to “maximise the contribution to public awareness”.
The local organising committee responded with a “green goal” initiative. It said the construction of Soccer City stadium, the venue for the opening ceremony and the first and final matches, used thousands of tonnes of builders’ rubble from the demolition of parts of the old FNB stadium.
Waterless urinals will be used in the stadium and the pitch will be irrigated exclusively with non-drinkable water, the organising committee said. Waste reduction will be pursued, with reusable cups and limited use of food containers.
Buyelwa Sonjica, South Africa’s environmental affairs minister, told parliament: “Some progress has been conducted toward processes for offsetting the footprint. However, even the footprint on its own is huge in comparison to the 2006 Fifa World Cup footprint. At least three of the nine host cities have considered the implementation of bicycle lanes.”
Source: Guardian
Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
The environmental impacts for events such as the soccer World Cup are inevitably considerable. As always, the negative impacts need to be weighed against the positive impacts such as economic and social upliftment of the people of South Africa. Hopefully some of the money generated by this international event will be directed to conserving our natural resources. New stadiums have huge environmental footprints; the building of the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit was not without ecological problems. However, the positive impacts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for South Africa are undeniable. Water saving measures such as waterless urinals will help to reduce the event’s water footprint.
26 comments
fifa worldcup tv
June 9, 2010 at 10:16 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Gday good article about the worldcup. I can’t wait for it to hurry up and start. Go the best team in the world, China(or Germany second choice) !!!
best way overcoming breakups
June 9, 2010 at 10:20 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
Betting Sites
June 10, 2010 at 3:29 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Excellent betting blog, love all the latest blog post, its really fun to read your blog and very useful info, thanks
watch soccer matches
June 10, 2010 at 9:18 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
I appreciate you for the great post. With the world cup coming round you’re starting to find far better discussions on sports around the globe. Keep it up please. The web needs it.
Video Games
June 11, 2010 at 12:42 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Great entry! May I use some of the information from this post if I provide a link back to your site?
Catherine Searles
June 11, 2010 at 8:34 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hi, I like your views. I was also thinking in the same way. Please write some more on similar topics and continue posting new ideas. Thank you.
Cornell Mrozek
June 11, 2010 at 11:35 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
The greatest show on earth is within South Africa but who will win it?
Evette Johe
June 11, 2010 at 3:24 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Absolutely very interested the World Cup, needs to be fantastic
Janeen Doeberling
June 11, 2010 at 5:09 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
its lovely stuff you got on your blog. Had been looking for reviews on this all over. good blog
increase hair growth
June 12, 2010 at 8:04 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
When i see post’s like this i cant help but be jelous….i wish was a bit more tech savy to be able to provide great info like you do…keep up the good work
best travel agency
June 12, 2010 at 8:29 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
thanks for sharing.
Golf Balls
June 13, 2010 at 4:57 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Thanks for sharing, I found this story while searching for free lyrics, interesting comments and great points made.
watch fifa world cup online
June 16, 2010 at 2:43 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Very interesting read. I dont think I can handle the anticipation for the Fifa 2010 worldcup! Its sad that theres been so many injuries in the lead up to the fifa worldcup. It should still be a successful world cup, but its a shame its off to a bad start, injury wise..
TSDating
June 16, 2010 at 3:03 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hello, I go over all your writings, keep them coming.
Business Firewall philadelphia
June 19, 2010 at 4:19 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
This is a fantastic place I can not believe that I didn’t stumble upon it before!
exclusiveeat
June 20, 2010 at 4:33 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
I would like to say, nice webpage. Im not sure if it has been addressed, however when using Firefox I can never get the entire page to load without refreshing alot of times. Could just be my modem.
Okay Living
June 20, 2010 at 5:43 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hi I have been reading your blog for the past two weeks and it is interesting, do you have a RSS feed?
Arnoldo Breitkreutz
June 21, 2010 at 12:17 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
I would like to say, nice webpage. Im not sure if it has been addressed, however when using Firefox I can never get the entire page to load without refreshing alot of times. Could just be my modem.
Ellen O'Kane Tauscher
June 21, 2010 at 3:05 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
I really am grateful for all of the grueling effort that you’ve put into keeping this site around for your followers. I seriously hope this is online for a nice long while.
Maisha Mcilvain
June 22, 2010 at 8:47 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hi there could I reference some of the information from this post if I reference you with a link back to your site?
admin
June 22, 2010 at 9:50 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Sure
Neva Pasco
June 23, 2010 at 9:59 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Thank you to get sharing this information. But it will be truly great to get some more details!
Wordpress Themes
June 30, 2010 at 1:51 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Good post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you as your information.
Pauletta Andelman
July 11, 2010 at 6:32 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
hi, excellent web blog, and a very good understand! one for my bookmarks.
Luis Delisio
July 15, 2010 at 5:13 am (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.
Ola Beattie
July 29, 2010 at 8:59 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Cool site!!