Climate cost of expanded World Cup under scrutiny as emissions set to soar

MANCHESTER: The World Cup kicks off on Thursday (Jun 11) as a celebration of goals, drama and global fandom, but it is also expected to carry a climate cost more than double that of Qatar 2022, throwing a harsh spotlight on the environmental price of football's expanding showpiece.

The tournament's enlarged footprint will see 48 teams and venues scattered across North America and an assessment published last week by global carbon accounting platform Greenly estimates it could generate 7.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. 

That is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.7 million cars, or the yearly emissions of Sierra Leone, making it the most polluting World Cup ever staged, according to academics and campaigners, driven mostly by the vast distances that teams, fans and media will travel across the three-country, 16-city format.

"I think the World Cup, in theory, is really fun for the sport and for visibility - but bad from a climate standpoint," author and sports ecologist Madeleine Orr told Reuters. 

The numbers underline that concern. Researchers estimate that as much as 87 per cent of the tournament's emissions will come from travel - chiefly flights - as millions of fans criss-cross a continent to follow their teams.  

The sheer geographical spread of the tournament that stretches 4,500km from Vancouver to Miami makes it inherently more carbon-intensive than the compact Qatar event, which was criticised for building seven new stadiums. Greenhouse gas emissions from Qatar were calculated at about 3.8 million tons. 

While no new stadiums were built this time around, expanding to more teams and spreading matches across distant host cities simply shifted the overall environmental cost, according to David