Olympic and Paralympic Games: how to reduce the carbon footprint of international travel?

According to the intermediate report published on Thursday, June 20, 2024, by the association The Shifters, the travel of international visitors to attend the Paris Games is expected to generate approximately 1.1 million tons of CO2 equivalent, which is more than twice the carbon budget announced by Paris 2024 for the travel component.

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As a result, despite high ambitions and a carbon footprint that should be lower than in previous editions, the Paris Games will likely not meet their climate objective.

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Sami is very proud to support Les Shifters and the publication of this report.

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Without ambitious measures to reduce emissions related to the travel of foreign visitors, it seems impossible "for such an event to ever be compatible with the Paris Agreement and therefore sustainable."

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This is why the authors of the report, beyond measuring emissions related to international travel, propose an alternative model for future Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG) and other major sporting events in this report.

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This would involve limiting the number of international visitors to massively reduce the most carbon-intensive travel. And at the same time, creating decentralized fan zones on all continents to welcome new visitors traveling shorter distances and with less emissive modes of transport.

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This would enable us to address the climate challenge while maintaining, or even increasing, the popular enthusiasm surrounding the Games.

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1. Estimation of the carbon impact of international visitor travel during the Paris 2024 OPG

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Here are the different assumptions used to calculate emissions related to the travel of international visitors for Paris 2024.

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Number of expected visitors

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Based on the number of international visitors who attended the London Games in 2012, the last Games held in Europe, and the number of tickets that will be sold for the Paris Games (approximately 12.1 million tickets), the authors estimate that approximately 768,000 foreign visitors, including 305,000 non-Europeans, are expected this summer in Paris. This only includes visitors with a ticket.

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By relying again on data from reports produced after the London Olympics, notably that of the National Statistics Office "Travel Trends 2012," published in 2013, the authors have retained a distribution regarding the geographical origin of foreign visitors.

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Distances traveled

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For each country or continent of origin of the visitors, the distance between Paris and the center of the country or geographical area concerned was used for the calculation. For example, 15,000 km for a round trip between North America and Europe.

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For European visitors, the distribution between the different modes of transport is based on the study of the movements of European supporters carried out during the Euro football tournament organized in France in 2016. For example, a German visitor travels to France by plane in 45% of cases, by car in 41% of cases, by train in 10% of cases, or by bus in 4% of cases.

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Databases

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To calculate the emissions associated with each trip, a carbon factor must then be used. 3 carbon databases were selected:

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- the DGAC (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) database: the DGAC calculates emissions attributable to aviation activity in France with the TARMAAC calculator (Treatment and Analysis of Rejects emitted into the Atmosphere by Civil Aviation).

- the ADEME Empreinte database: this is the official public database of emission factors for France.

- the DEFRA database: the equivalent of the Empreinte database for the United Kingdom, it is notably this database that was used to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of the London Games in 2012. This is also the database that the IOC encourages using to estimate GHG emissions associated with air travel during Olympic editions.

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Results

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Here are the expected emissions for the travel of international visitors (only those with a ticket) for the Paris Games:

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- with the DGAC base: 730,000 t CO2e, a figure 37% higher than the total carbon budget for Paris 2024 travel.

- with the Ademe base: 1,020,000 t CO2e, or 90% excess compared to the carbon budget associated with all international and national travel for Paris 2024.

- with the DEFRA base: 1,120,000 t CO2e, or 108% more than the carbon budget for Paris 2024 travel.

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Given that the DEFRA database was used by the London Games and that it is this database that is recommended by the IOC to estimate CO2 emissions, the authors of the report consider that this figure of 1.1 million tons of CO2e is the most realistic.

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Conclusion for emissions

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Travel by international visitors with a ticket for the Olympic or Paralympic Games should therefore represent approximately 1.1 million tons of CO2e. The authors also estimate that travel within France during the event should weigh approximately 116,000 tons of CO2e. That is a total of 1.2 million tons of CO2e for travel.

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This is more than twice the carbon budget for the travel component that was set by the Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (OPGOC), 537,000 tons of CO2e.

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The OPGOC had set a total carbon budget for the Paris Games of 1.58 million tons of CO2e, with this distribution:

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In May 2024, the organizers reduced emissions related to construction to 349,000 tons of CO2e instead of the initially announced 521,000 tons. This is good news. However, by adding the carbon budget for operations and our estimate for travel, the Paris Games are expected to emit nearly 2.1 million tons of CO2e.

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It is important to note that despite exceeding the pre-set carbon budget, the Paris Games should still generate 36% fewer emissions than the London Games, even with 10% more tickets sold. Effective initiatives have been put in place, notably the 95% of existing or temporary infrastructure for the Games, which has massively reduced emissions related to construction.

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2. Decentralized fan-zones, a new model to achieve the Paris Agreement goals?

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Without strong measures to reduce emissions related to international travel, it seems impossible to organize future Olympic and Paralympic Games, or other major sporting events, in line with the climate objective of the Paris Agreement.

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This is why the authors of this report detail an alternative model based on two measures to be implemented in parallel:

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- The drastic limitation of the number of tickets sold to international spectators to maximize sales to local spectators and those from neighboring countries, allowing for low-carbon travel.

- The creation of decentralized and regionalized fan-zones, managed by the Olympic and Paralympic Games organizer, to welcome international spectators but close to their homes, allowing for less emissive transportation.

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This innovative proposal offers three major benefits:

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- It reduces the distance traveled by visitors to the host city of the Olympic Games while significantly reducing the proportion of visitors flying to the event.

- It opens up the competition to a larger number of visitors (shorter distance and more affordable prices).

- It compensates for the revenue loss caused by the decrease in the number of foreign visitors by significantly increasing the number of visitors via the fan-zones.

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The authors of the report propose creating 8 fan-zones distributed over the 5 continents. These fan-zones could accommodate up to 2.1 million people, or 6.5 million visits (3 visits per person on average).

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Several assumptions have been made for travel to these fan-zones:

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- Only 3% of visitors use airplanes and 50% use cars to get to the event (while trying to encourage them to avoid these modes of transportation as much as possible).

- The average round-trip distance for air travel is 4,000 km and 500 km for car travel.

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If these assumptions are met, the 8 regionalized fan-zones would generate 334,000 tons of CO2e emissions. If we add the emissions related to travel within the host country, those of visitors from neighboring countries, and those of the athletes' relatives, the carbon budget for travel set by the Paris Games (537,000 tons of CO2e) would be respected.

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Conclusion

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"It is very easy to dismiss all activities considered non-essential. It is entirely possible to live without the Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, the sectors of leisure, entertainment, and events are part of our modern societies, and it seems unrealistic to imagine that everything could - or should - disappear in the blink of an eye. Moreover, it could even be argued that it would be counterproductive to regulate these sectors first, given the unpopularity that such a measure would generate.

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It is because we love the Olympic Games that we want them to be different.

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We strongly urge future sporting or cultural events to commit even further, setting ambitious goals and implementing credible and effective actions, particularly regarding international travel. In this regard, the potential Winter Olympics to be held in France in 2030 must set the tone and show that this model is realistic and essential to quickly and drastically limit our carbon impact."

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Alexis Lepage and Paul Delanoë, co-authors of the report "Olympic and Paralympic Games: Meeting the Climate and Energy Challenge of International Travel."

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Here is the page (in French) where you will find the complete report published on Thursday, June 20, 2024.

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