Qatar washing green linen in public?

In 1983, American undergraduate student Jay Westerveld was en route to Samoa on a research trip when he made surf stop-off in Fiji.

Staying in budget accommodation, he snuck into a sprawling luxurious resort close by for a little more comfort when he was taken by a note requesting customers to pick up their towels.

"It basically said that the oceans and reefs are an important resource, and that reusing the towels would reduce ecological damage," Westerveld later recalled. "They finished by saying something like, 'Help us to help our environment'."

What struck the student was the irony at play. At the same time of asking for greater awareness of the environment, the resort was expanding significantly and building more bungalows.

He recalled this three years later when writing a paper on multi-culturalism, writing: ‘It all comes out in the greenwash.’

Asked to write an article on the topic in a magazine, the phrase quickly came into modern lexicon and green washing was born, even if the concept has been around considerably longer.

More than 35 years later, the principle remains, even if the means have become far more sophisticated.

In June of last year, Fifa said that it expects 3.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be produced during the World Cup in Qatar, more than what many countries release in a year and 1.5 million tonnes more than the total produced at Russia 2018.

Remarkably, tournament organisers have vowed a carbon-neutral event, with Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar 2022, stating net-zero emissions for the tournament as a whole will be achieved "by measuring, mitigating and offsetting all our greenhouse gas emissions".

The carbon-neutral technologies used during construction, the solar-powered