Greening Efforts May Fall Short in Carbon-Heavy World Cup

Despite goals to create a carbon-sensitive and environmentally friendly World Cup, the impact of carbon emissions related to the games will be hard for South African cities to counter. Cities have taken many efforts, including tree planting, green design in new stadia, and carbon credit trading systems. But some say those efforts won't be enough.

Despite these efforts, the environmental cost of the World Cup will be heavy. The "carbon footprint" is estimated at the equivalent of 2.75-million tonnes of carbon dioxide, nine times higher than the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and more than twice as high as the Beijing Olympics.

Simple geography is the main reason: foreign visitors will travel a total of 7.1 million kilometres (4.4 million miles) to cheer their teams at the southern tip of Africa, their planes emitting tonnes of carbon.

World Cup will be more grey than green
Independent Online
March 2, 2010