Carbon Market Watch analysis questions 2022 Qatar World Cup carbon-neutral claim

June 28, 2022

A report has been released by Carbon Market Watch, a non-profit association with expertise in carbon pricing, in which they question claims made by organisers of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar that the tournament will be the first carbon-neutral event of its kind.

The analysis reveals that this claim lacks credibility due to the “apparent large-scale underestimation of the event’s emissions and the low quality of the carbon credits currently purchased to offset the climate impact.”

Carbon Market Watch highlight that “FIFA, football’s international governing body, and the Qatari co-organisers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup have claimed that the event which is set to take place in November-December 2022, will have no net impact on the climate. This is despite the construction of seven world-class football stadiums, and the expected attendance of over one million people who will reach Doha by plane.”

The Carbon Market Watch report also states that the claim “adds to the long list of misleading advertisements and announcements that companies and event organisers are increasingly presenting to the public. Carbon-intensive products and services are increasingly being marketed in ways that suggest they have no net impact on the climate.”

While Qatari organisers characterised the analysis from Carbon Market Watch as “speculative and inaccurate”, they did not specify why this was the case, or point out any factual mistake in the report.

Carbon Market Watch acknowledges that its report does not assess the full extent of the impact of the implemented climate mitigation measures, but the group said that some of the proposed actions also “lack integrity”.

The report notes that World Cup organisers have contributed to establishing a new carbon credit standard, the Global Carbon Council, which is supposed to deliver at least 1.8 million credits to offset World Cup emissions. According to the report, the council has two registered projects and has issued just over 130,000 credits.

“In the case of the World Cup, organisers have attributed a minuscule footprint to the construction of six brand new, state-of-the-art football stadiums, even though these were purpose built for the event and are at risk of not being used or of being underused after the event. They achieved this improbably low figure by distributing the construction-related emissions as a proportion of the number of days during which the stadiums will be used for the World Cup divided by the total lifetime of the stadiums, which is estimated at over half a century. The more realistic and responsible accounting approach would have been to attribute all the emissions associated with building the stadiums to the tournament.”

Gilles Dufrasne, author of the Carbon Market Watch report notes “It would be great to see the climate impact of FIFA World Cups being drastically reduced. But the carbon neutrality claim that is being made is simply not credible.

“Despite a lack of transparency, the evidence suggests that the emissions from this World Cup will be considerably higher than expected by the organisers, and the carbon credits being purchased to offset these emissions are unlikely to have a sufficiently positive impact on the climate.”

Following the release of the Carbon Market Watch, a spokesperson told The Guardian that the criticisms from Carbon Market Watch were “speculative and inaccurate”, while a spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy told BBC Sport “we are on track to hosting a carbon-neutral World Cup. The methodology used to calculate the carbon-neutral commitment is best in practice and was designed to be based on actual activity data, after the World Cup has concluded. This will be published, and any discrepancies will be explained and offset.

“No other country has engaged so deeply with its citizens to ensure a sustainable legacy is left behind after a FIFA World Cup.”

A statement from FIFA added “The organisers have pledged to measure, mitigate and offset all FIFA World Cup 2022 greenhouse gas emissions, while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. Thus, at no point has FIFA misled its stakeholders, as is claimed by the report.

“FIFA is fully aware of the risks that mega-events pose on the economy, the natural environment and on people and communities.”

FIFA claim it has been making efforts to “tackle those impacts and use opportunities that arise to mitigate the negative impacts and maximise the positive impacts of its iconic tournament.”

Despite the organiser’s claim that having so many stadiums concentrated in a small geographical area would help reduce emissions related to air travel, Qatar Airways announced )on the day Carbon Market Watch released their report) that it would operate 160 daily flights with neighbouring countries as a shuttle service as part of the World Cup.

This might help address the shortage of accommodation for fans in and around Doha, but it will widen the gap between the organiser’s claims and the reality of a carbon-neutral tournament.

Carbon Market Watch stress that this highlights the urgent need for action to bring into check this kind of questionable and damaging practice and add “although regulators and civil society are increasingly taking action against greenwashing and misleading claims, more needs to be done because far-fetched climate claims are skyrocketing.”

Image: The 80,000 capacity Lusail Stadium. Designed by Foster + Partners, the venue will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final. Credit: Foster + Partners.

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