Five circles, a thousand shades of green, many with a dark tone. The Paris 2024 Olympics are about to present themselves to the world as a revolutionary event for the climate: but between ambitious promises and reality, the line between sustainability and greenwashing becomes increasingly thinner with each day that separates us from the opening ceremony.
Paris 2024 Olympics, a titanic undertaking
Imagine the scene: you have to organize the party of the century, but with one small detail: you must not leave even a small carbon footprint. Well, this is more or less the task that the organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics have set themselves. A titanic undertaking, considering that we are talking about an event that mobilizes thousands of athletes, millions of spectators and tons of infrastructure.
Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, exhibits pride: “We promised to halve the carbon footprint compared to the London 2012 Olympics.” Beautiful, is not it? But as a wise old man said: there is a difference between saying and doing. Or in this case, the Seine (swimmable, more or less).
The (green) devil hides in the details
At first glance, the plan seems flawless. Listen here. 80% of the ingredients for catering it will be locally sourced, thus reducing “food miles”. Animal food will be reduced by 50-60%, while plant-based products they will double. Four out of five Paris 2024 locations They are within a radius of 10 kilometers. And last but not least, 100% of the electricity used in the Olympic venues it will be renewable.
As in any good thriller, however, there is a twist. Second a relationship of Carbon Market Watch and Éclaircies, the strategy “lacks detailed methodologies and comprehensive monitoring, and is not clearly communicated.” Simply put: parbleu, nice words, but where are the facts?
The case of the Tahiti reef
And then there is the question of Tahiti. No, it's not the name of a new Olympic cocktail, but the location chosen for the surfing competitions. Too bad to install a tower (totally optional, by the way) a coral reef has been damaged. Things that happen. They're kids.
We promised to halve our carbon footprint compared to the London 2012 Olympics.
Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Olympics, in an interview to Time Magazine
Yes, but at what cost? one might wonder.
More elephants in the Olympic glassware
I have to do it, you'll excuse me. I can't help myself. I need to point out at least a couple more things. Talking about transportation, for example. About 85% of greenhouse gas emissions for major sporting events come from travel by fans, journalists and athletes. And how do you plan to address this problem in Paris 2024? With the infamous “carbon offsets”, a practice that many experts consider little more than an accounting trick.
Need anything else? They come to me in no particular order, as I direct my gaze. What do you think of the decision to build a temporary skate rink on Place de la Concorde? A report by MediaPart calls it “a concrete avalanche”. Wow. Concrete, for those who don't know, is considered the most destructive material on Earth. Not exactly the best for an event that boasts of being "historic for the climate".
Paris 2024 Olympics, it's time for the awards ceremony
Here we are, the podium is set up. We are ready to give the gold medal: but for which discipline? Will the Paris 2024 Olympics really be the greenest in history? The jury is gathered to examine the photo finish, but the impression is that there is still a long way to go before we can talk about a truly sustainable Olympics.
And it's not even the Ville Lumière's fault. As he said Madeleine Orr, author of “Warming Up: How Climate Change Is Changing Sport”: “There is no sustainable version of the Games yet.” And maybe that's exactly the point. Perhaps, instead of trying to green an inherently unsustainable event, we should rethink the entire concept of the Olympics.
At the moment, it seems that the only record that the Paris 2024 Olympics is in danger of breaking is that of greenwashing most elaborate in the history of sport. But hey, at least they're trying, right? And in a world where climate change is knocking ever louder at the door, perhaps even an imperfect attempt is better than nothing. Or maybe not. For posterity, and for environmentalists, the arduous sentence.
