The climate cost of World Cup expansion - Emissions increase significantly, double compared to Qatar 2022
The World Cup begins on Thursday as a celebration of goals, drama and global fanfare, but it is also expected to have a climate cost more than double that of Qatar 2022. That has led to strong reactions about the environmental cost of the great football spectacle.
The tournament's expanded borders will see 48 teams and venues spread across North America, and an estimate published last week by global carbon accounting platform Greenly estimates it could generate 7.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
That's roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.7 million cars, or the annual emissions of Sierra Leone, making it the most polluting World Cup ever staged, according to academics and activists. This is largely due to the vast distances that teams, fans and media will travel in the three-country, 16-city format.
Researchers estimate that up to 87% of the tournament's emissions will come from travel - mainly flights - as millions of fans cross a continent to follow their teams.
The tournament's geographical spread, stretching 2,800 miles from Vancouver to Miami, makes it inherently more carbon-intensive than the compact Qatar tournament, which was criticized for building seven new stadiums. Qatar's greenhouse gas emissions were estimated at approximately 3.8 million tons.
While no new stadiums were built this time, expanding to include more teams and spreading the matches to distant host cities simply changed the overall environmental cost, according to environmentalists.
The World Cup venues are divided into three regional groups - West, Center and East - an attempt to reduce travel distances.
FIFA has not set a specific carbon target for the World Cup. FIFA has pointed to the use of existing stadiums, encouraging fans to use public transport.
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