Kick the carbon

Phew! Fifa will send 2.75 milion tons of carbon dioxide up into the atmosphere! That is the equivalent of emissions from over 1 million cars driving on the roads in a year.

And that’s six times the size of the last World Cup that was held in Germany four years ago.

According to a Norwegian government study, when FIFA chose South Africa as the host for the World Cup, the country was faced with the enormous task of having to build entirely new stadiums, whilst Germany used many existing venues, meaning massive amounts of carbon-intensive concrete. When it comes to construction, the cement industry is one of the main producers of carbon dioxide, with a ton of carbon being released for every ton of cement made.

On top of that, an increase in energy production (which is heavily coaled based in Africa) has seen more carbon emissions pumped into the atmosphere, especially when compared to Germany with its renewable energy installations. Compared to other European nations, South Africa also has poorer energy efficiency especially in buildings such as hotels. With a massive increase in accommodation use over the four week period, it is estimated that poor energy efficiency will be three and a half times worse per person for the South African World Cup than in Germany.

Well, we can't stop mega events like Fifa for climate considerations, as the fans will say. the least that can be done is to look at carbon offsets. South Africa has constructed the Gautrain, a high-speed rail network that will transport fans around the country. There are also projects to reduce fossil fuel consumption such as a US$10 million scheme to install solar panels and efficient lights on the streets, stoplights and billboards of the six host cities. Further efforts to reduce the footprint has seen the government initiate substantial offset programs, including urban tree planting.

But wait, Fifa also has its green points in its jerseys! NIKE recycled nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from landfill sites in JAPAN & TAIWAN, enough to cover more than 29 football pitches, into Polyester and finally into jerseys (see pic). Nine National teams (Brasil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia) in the FIFA World Cup Football in South Africa are using these recycled jerseys. If the bottles used to make the jerseys were laid end-to-end they would cover more than 3,000 kms, which is more than the entire coastline of South Africa.