Is this the UAE’s most climate-conscious sporting event?

DUBAI: The Desert Vipers have released a sustainability match report outlining the environmental impact of their headline sustainability fixture, saying it is possibly the lowest-emission professional sporting event ever held in the UAE.

Timed to mark World Environment Day, the report details how the Vipers, a founding team in the DP World International League T20, or ILT20, say they reduced the carbon footprint of a professional cricket match to just 30.86 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, translating per fan to a low 8.6 kg of CO2 equivalent, a rarity in global sport.

“While mega-events like the Paris 2024 Olympics (emitted 1.59 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent) and Euro 2024 (generated 490,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent) understandably carry large footprints due to international travel and scale, the Vipers’ match sets a benchmark in per capita emissions. At 8.6 kg CO2 equivalent per attendee, this may be among the most climate-conscious fan experiences in professional sport,” said Ben Hardy-Jones, head of sustainability and lead author of the report.

Hosted during season 3 of ILT20, the Vipers match featured: 100 percent recycled team and fan kits, made locally; hospitality menus free from red meat, with reduced dairy; biofuel-powered pitch machinery; fan travel emissions limited to under 11 percent of total footprint; water-awareness labelling in hospitality menus; a digital reach of 15.4 million and more than 265,000 engagements, amplifying the sustainability message, with virtually zero additional carbon impact.

“As one of ILT20’s founding franchises, we wanted to show how elite sport can lead on climate action without compromising experience,” said Phil Oliver, Desert Vipers CEO and recent Middle East CEO of the Year