{"id":7042,"date":"2024-10-28T11:34:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T10:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/?p=7042"},"modified":"2024-10-28T11:37:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T10:37:04","slug":"83-bottles-of-wine-per-person-how-experts-are-calculating-the-paris-olympics-carbon-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/en\/articles\/83-bottles-of-wine-per-person-how-experts-are-calculating-the-paris-olympics-carbon-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"83 bottles of wine per person: how experts are calculating the Paris Olympics\u2019 carbon\u00a0footprint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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men relay race in background banner Sport 2024 Photo credit : sports photos\/AdobeStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anne de Bortoli<\/a>, \u00c9cole nationale des ponts et chauss\u00e9es (ENPC)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 2024 Paris Olympics aim to be the greenest edition on record, and the first compatible with the Paris climate agreement<\/a>. Talk of \u201cgreen games\u201d goes back to April 2021. At the time, the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) had even aspired to carbon neutrality by removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than those generated by the games. However, the reference to net zero was quietly dropped in subsequent communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking the talk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This begs the question: can the promise of \u201cgreen games\u201d be kept?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper, the Paris Olympics aim to halve the greenhouse gas emissions released by the Rio 2016 or London 2012 Games, estimated at an average 3.5 million tonnes of CO2<\/sub> equivalent (Mt CO2<\/sub> eq)<\/a>. That\u2019s with the caveat that both games were among the least environmentally friendly<\/a> in history. There have also been criticisms of the methodology used to calculate emissions, prompting the International Olympics Committee to release a standardised carbon footprint calculation framework for the Olympic games<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, the maximum carbon budget for Paris 2024 has been set at 1.58 Mt CO2<\/sub> eq. This is without a doubt an ambitious target, especially when we consider that the Tokyo 2020 Games, organised during a pandemic and without spectators, still generated almost 2 Mt CO\u2082 eq<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Olympics pollute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The biggest emission sources during mega-events<\/a> are traditionally the transport of participants and the construction of buildings and infrastructure. The 2024 Olympics\u2019 carbon footprint estimated to date breaks down into three relatively equal parts<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n