What with the world cup final near us and the hype nearly reaching an end, can it be that this year’s biggest sport tournament is a big climate polluter?

CO2 and politics

Is this even a big deal? Surely, countries can get along for the biggest sporting event of the year without worrying about politics; surely it cannot be ruined by some CO2 figures.

It can be argued that the world cup is perhaps the only time when the whole country comes together in celebrations and excitement. Many people around England saw a great unification as they proudly hung up the St. George’s flag so why are we worrying about the environment on this special occasion? Well, get this:

The estimated amount of CO2 emitted in this year’s world cup is 2,753,251 tons. That’s roughly the same as the amount released by 1 million cars throughout the course of one year. And this year’s world cup is 6 times worse in terms of emissions than the last world cup because of the influx of international visitors flying in rather than using trains and cars like in Berlin 2006.

The environmental cost

Added to that, South Africa needed to build more stadiums and it did so at a cost to the environment because for every 1 ton of cement manufactured there was 1 ton of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere. As a way of trying to offset this heavy pollution, South Africa built an efficient rail network to transport visitors and planted many trees in suburban areas.

The Guardian gave a visual idea of just how much CO2 has been emitted throughout this year’s world cup – the equivalent of 6000 space shuttle missions or the production of 1 billion cheeseburgers!

How China contributed

But out of all the factors to affect the amount of CO2 from this year’s world cup it was the spectators who caused the most amounts. Figures show that China is the world’s largest polluter and, even though their team did not attend the world cup games, may have contributed to vast amounts of air miles pollution. How, I hear you ask?

Well, the North Korean fans waving about in the stadiums, it turns out, were Chinese actors assigned to cheer the country on. This political restraint on its own citizens means that hardly anyone from North Korea is able to obtain a visa to leave the country and it has raised questions on whether the world cup has taken on a political rather than global role.

North Korea’s participation in the world cup is welcomed but are its citizens are being treated fairly and should North Korea leave the future world cup participations all together?

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