The Paris Olympics has officially ended, with organisers claiming to have achieved its promise of staging the most sustainable games ever, amid a historically carbon-intensive event that attracts nearly 13 million spectators, athletes and officials from over 200 countries.
Despite criticism that the games’ efforts to reduce its carbon footprint by doing away with airconditioning in athletes’ rooms resulted in reports of some sleeping outside their living quarters, the organisers in the French capital were able to keep emissions at 1.58 million tonnes – half of the average for London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
Rain soaked the opening ceremony on 27 July, but the downpour was followed by an intense heat wave across France and much of Europe. The Paris Olympics was the hottest on record.
With global warming constantly marring the world’s largest multi-sport event, its organisers in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have made sustainable infrastructure, sourcing and mobility plans part of the criteria for aspiring hosts.
Los Angeles and Brisbane have pledged to keep sustainability in mind as they hold the 2028 and 2032 games, respectively. The United States’ second most populous city has launched a zero-emissions transportation city plan while Australia’s third densest metropolis is aiming to put on a climate positive event.
So does developing Asia have the green credentials to carry the Olympic torch? Indonesia and India have formally announced their bids to hold the 2036 Summer Olympics, which has raised questions about some of the world’s most polluted cities hosting 32 sporting events, as well as their ability to bear the cost.
Indonesia: a “nature-filled” Olympics, despite funding woes
Indonesia has proposed its new capital Nusantara to be the venue for the games.
The Southeast Asian nation aims to shift its capital from flood-prone and traffic-congested Jakarta on the island of Java to the densely forested East Kalimantan province on Borneo.
Being developed as a “sustainable forest city”, Nusantara will offer athletes a “more nature-filled Olympics”, according to Hendricus Andy Simarmata, an environmental consultant working on the construction of Nusantara and president of the Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners.
The Olympics stadium and athletes’ village are being eyed to be built outside the district of the Palace, says Dr Andy Simarmata. Image: Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Housing
“We want to put the forest in the middle of the city. We don’t just want to promote the usual tourist places like how Paris has done with the Eiffel Tower and heritage museums. We want to offer our nature to the Olympics,” Simarmata told Eco-Business.
He said the relocation of Indonesia’s capital to leafy Kalimantan could also improve air quality for the games and prevent a repeat of the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta, where some athletes reportedly passed out from the choking pollution.
Nusantara’s master plan includes a blueprint aimed at curbing dirty air and emissions, he added.
The plan details a model code, which is based on both government and international standards for building regulations, for high-rised housing, reducing the need for urban sprawl while preserving natural areas. This results in energy, water and carbon dioxide savings.
The programme envisions the new capital city to run on electric public transport, with gasoline-powered vehicles only allowed in certain zones. It also has a reforestation programme which will replant a lush tropical rainforest on barren lands that were former mining and logging concessions.
However, the biggest challenge facing Indonesia’s Olympics ambition is financing, said Simarmata. This is especially true since construction of the new city has been lagging due to soaring costs and key facilities have yet to be built.
But he believes the bulk of expenses for a green Olympics will go on transportation since Indonesia does not have its own domestic electric vehicle manufacturing industry and has to depend on China and Germany for imports.
“The games need to have good connections from the airport to the city centre and to other cities. A city without mobility is not a city,” he said.
India has financial, but not green credentials
While Indonesia is concerned about financing, India has the support not only of its prime minister, but Asia’s wealthiest family to make sure the Olympics happens on Indian soil 12 years from now.
Nita Ambani, founder and chair of non-profit Reliance Foundation, whose husband runs petrochemicals-to-textiles conglomerate Reliance Industries, was reelected as a member of the IOC ahead of the opening ceremony of the games in Paris. It was also at the games where she inaugurated India House, a temporary structure meant to promote Indian culture as the country aspires to host the 2036 Games.
Nita Ambani, founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation, delivers a speech at the Indian House at in the Paris Olympics. Image: Mumbai Indians
Despite having the financial muscle to host the 32-sport tournament, an environmental economist from India does not believe one of the world’s fastest growing economies has the capacity to hold sustainable games.
“The challenges of building and managing the sports and related infrastructure, let alone green infrastructure, are enormous. Hosting the Olympics requires organisational capacity, efficiency, technical skill and financial resources of a huge magnitude. The track record of India for holding international games does not bear this out,” said Shreekant Gupta, former professor at the Delhi School of Economics.
Gupta referred to the scandal of the Commonwealth Games in 2010, where the chief organiser was accused of conspiracy regarding the awarding of commercial contracts for the event.
On the environmental front, there is also the thick smog that covered Delhi in November last year which disrupted the Cricket World Cup and shuttered schools as officials rushed to contain a pollution crisis that has become an annual occurrence in the Indian capital.
As India’s current population of 1.4 billion is projected to increase to 1.52 billion by 2036, and without a holistic long-term air quality improvement plan in place, pollution is likely to get worse, he added.
But India’s lack of sustainability credentials could still take shape in the next few years as Ambani’s sharpens her advocacy to make India a global sporting powerhouse.
In her speech in Paris, she said: “In a world that is more divided and fragmented than ever before, sport truly is one of the greatest equalisers and unifiers of our time … Legacy is not built overnight. We all can play our part in creating it.”
