Qatar’s Olympics-style World Cup may not be ‘carbon-neutral’, as Fifa claims. But what to do to make future tournaments sustainable?
- Fifa’s claim the Qatar World Cup is carbon-neutral has come under fire; critics say stadium construction and inbound air travel make for big carbon footprint
- Qatar’s one-city World Cup does minimise domestic travel, but an expert says scaling down stadia and reducing foreign visitors is the way to become eco-friendly
Souk Waqif in Doha, Qatar, is a colourful place even when there aren’t thousands of football fans jostling to occupy its antiques shops, restaurants and shisha lounges.
In the late afternoon sun, the mud-brick facades of the marketplace glow orange as the sweet smells of tobacco and molasses mingle with delicate perfumes and the smell of grilled lamb.
The market’s main thoroughfare leads into the ultra-modern Msheireb district, where, during the group stages of the football World Cup, the digital bell of a yellow electric tram chimes as the vehicle approaches a group of Iranian football fans exhaling loudly through tuneless vuvuzelas.
These emissions are welcome in Qatar, but Fifa says it’s focused on reducing the more insidious kind at this tournament, perhaps establishing a blueprint for more sustainable future World Cups in the process.
Net-zero carbon dioxide emissions will be achieved, Fifa claims, with the purchase of carbon credits in renewable energy projects in Turkey and Serbia.
