Will the Paris 2024 Olympic Games be carbon neutral?

It is likely that the goal of emitting no more than 1.58 million tons will be reached. This threshold not to be crossed represents a little less than half of the 3.5 million tons caused by the respective Olympic Games in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016 (those in Tokyo in 2021 took place without spectators due to the Covid-19 pandemic). This is the first time in Olympic history that a “committee for the ecological transformation of the games” oversees the calculations of emissions on the entire sports project, from the construction of buildings to travel caused by the event, including catering, reception and travel during competitions.

This first phase of organizing the event between 2018 and 2023 is especially marked by the weight of the construction of the sports arenas.Of the 476,000 tonnes emitted, 73% come from the construction of buildings and 27% from the preparation itself, for example the professional travel of the organizers.“, explains Georgina Grenon, Director of Environmental Excellence at Paris 2024.

The Paris Games rely largely on existing buildings such as the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, which had to be renovated. According to the organization, the only building built for the Olympics is the aquatic center located in Saint-Denis near the Stade de France.Solideo, the company in charge of construction, has made every effort to avoid and reduce emissions, in particular by using low-carbon materials and recycled materials.“, explains Benjamin Lévêque, responsible for climate and biodiversity at Paris 2024.

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The “athletes’ village” will become a Parisian district after the games

Under the supervision of Ademe, Solideo has in fact integrated wood and bio-sourced materials into its achievements and practiced reuse. Thus, the bleacher seats of Arena 2 and the aquatic center are made of recycled plastic. The bioclimatic buildings of the “athletes’ village” are equipped with a 4680 m² photovoltaic plant. This new district of the commune of Ile-Saint-Denis is also heated by geothermal energy.

It is only partially included in the carbon footprint because after the games, it will be inhabited by people from the Paris region. Many sites are also temporary and will be reused after the competitions.These areas like the Champ de Mars have been connected to the electricity grid so that in the future there will be no need to use generators as before, rejoices Benjamin Lévêque. It should be noted that before these connections, it was necessary to spend 10,000 liters of fuel to provide electricity for a day of demonstrations.”. All sites are also lit with LEDs.

The approach has been applied to all sectors of the event. All sites are accessible by bike and public transport: 415 kilometres of cycle paths have been created for the occasion. The proportion of vegetables in the plates of the 60,000 meals provided daily will be doubled and the site of the Place de Concorde where the urban sports events will take place will be entirely vegetarian. The food is promised to be local and seasonal and there will be half as much disposable plastic as in London 12 years ago. Food waste will also be combated, promise the organisers who estimate that the carbon footprint of this sector will be reduced by 50% compared to previous games. These all-round efforts have earned the organisation the approval of the High Council for Climate (HCC).

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Take the train instead of the plane

The future impact of the Olympic Games is therefore the travel of athletes and their entourage and supporters. The organization cannot currently make an assessment of the emissions induced by flights mainly because the organizing committee does not know the real origin of the buyers who can acquire up to 30 tickets.What we know is that buyers are 2/3 French, one third foreign”, table Georgina Grenon.

The organisers are hoping that spectators who can afford it will choose the train rather than the plane. Symbolically, the delegations from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland will arrive by train and will encourage their supporters to do the same. However, travel constitutes an incompressible part of CO2 emissions, which has prompted many to propose that the Olympic Games should no longer be hosted every four years in different cities but should be confined to permanent sites.

Paris 2024 has therefore tried as much as possible to avoid emitting CO2 and then reduced its carbon footprint by using technologies and making more energy-efficient gestures. There remains an incompressible part that will be offset. The offset consists of financing environmental programs that reduce emissions elsewhere. Thus, the Games will finance the planting of 1,450 hectares of forests on the Pierrelaye-Bessancourt plain in Ile-de-France and the replanting of degraded massifs in Montmorency, in the Vosges and in the Aisne.

Abroad, nine projects will be financed. These include the installation of improved cooking systems (which reduce the need for firewood) in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Rwanda, the creation of photovoltaic power plants in Senegal and Vietnam, the protection of areas from deforestation in Guatemala and Kenya and the restoration of a mangrove in Senegal. A total of 10.7 million euros will be devoted to financing the storage of nearly 1.5 million tonnes of CO2.

In 2050, it will be too hot to hold the Olympic Games in August

The organizing committee assures that it has surrounded itself with all the precautions so that the climate promises are kept by the programs. Compensation is not in fact a very reliable mechanism as several scientific studies have shown. Paris 2024 therefore wants to be exemplary. Its climate action is however not only a gesture of ecological goodwill. It is also an act of safeguarding on the part of the sports movement. Because the climate change currently underway risks undermining sports practices. It is thus likely that in 2050 it will not be possible to organize the Games in August because of excessive heat.

This is according to Axa Climate, the insurer’s subsidiary specializing in studying the impacts of climate change. In a study published on June 17, 2024, Axa Climate looked at the climatic conditions that will prevail in 2050 in five cities that have already hosted the Olympic Games as well as in five French regions where specific sports are practiced.

This is how in August 2050, Paris will experience 12 days with temperatures above 28°C, making marathon running dangerous, for example. Turin will no longer be able to host the Winter Games due to lack of snow, and Athens will have to take into account an increasing fire risk. Pau (Pyrénées-Orientales) will have to close its canoe-kayak course for three months at that time due to lack of water flow. Athletes have every interest in paying attention to their greenhouse gas emissions.