The World Cup is the major tournament organised by FIFA. This competition usually results in a large amount greenhouse gases emitted through various sources. This is the product of a huge number of people travelling from across the globe in order to support their teams.
Further, there is the greenhouse gases emitted during the infrastructure upgrades in the region. This is easily done by the way of better transport facilities and new stadiums. FIFA has targeted the reduction in greenhouse gases from the World Cup over the last few years, but major steps will be taken from the 2014 World Cup onwards.
It has been monitoring the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the World Cup since 2006. The Confederations cup that was held in Brazil earlier in the year along with the World Cup is expected to provide 2.7 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. An individual consultancy, though, recently estimated the amount to be as high as 14 million tonnes.
This is primarily due to the domestic and international travel of the tourists. FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke said that it plans to reduce the carbon footprint by offsetting the emissions through investments in various carbon offsetting projects across the world.
It is also encouraging the partner companies to also do the same.
“Fifa and the LOC [local organising committee] will compensate for their emissions through verified carbon offsetting projects and also encourage our stakeholders to lower their carbon footprint. The objective is to strengthen the participants’ knowledge of sustainable operations at football stadiums and other sports facilities,” said the general secretary of FIFA, Valcke.
Despite Brazil being awarded the World Cup several years ago, the country is not expected to have a significant revamp in the transportation infrastructure. Instead, most of the energy is going to focus on stadium development.