Words by Smiley Team
The 2021 Olympic Games are over, but the excitement doesn’t end there as organising has already started for the next. In three years time, Paris will host the event and its board of directors promise to make it the world’s most sustainable sports event ever by more than halving emissions of previous events.
In line with the Paris Climate Agreement, the 2024 Games’ green strategy will attempt to make the event zero-waste and almost entirely powered by renewable energies. They'll use low-carbon equipment and renewable energy across all their venues, which will be entirely accessible by public transport. And all catering, internet use and other activities will be as sustainable as possible.
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Hearing the news, Niclas Svenningsen of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “Paris 2024 is sending a strong signal to the world about the importance of ambitious and inclusive climate action. It is a sign of leadership that the city, where the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was adopted in 2015, is now also hosting the first ever climate positive Olympic Games.”
The Paris organisers’ strategy will mean that any unavoidable emissions from the Games will be offset by investment in projects to protect the climate. These include forest conservation and restoration, as well as projects to provide communities with low-carbon technology.
With the release of the 6th Assessment Report from the IPCC on 10 August, we now know from the science it summarises that we are on track for warming of 2 to 3℃.
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But the report also offers a message of hope – that we still have time to divert from our current path leading us to total climate collapse and ensure that the impacts of climate change our future holds will be less severe.
Niclas urged: “If we are to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement and avoid the worst impact of climate change, we have only 10 years left to reduce global emissions by 50%.
"Today, the Paris 2024 Board of Directors has shown that the spirit from 2015 is still alive and well: We must, we can, and we will be successful in the fight against climate change.”
