Causes of Greenhouse Gas Emissions During UEFA
The UEFA European Championships, a renowned football tournament, celebrates sports and is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental implications of such a grand event are diverse, originating from several areas, including transportation, stadium energy consumption, and waste production.
Transportation
Transportation plays a significant role in the event’s carbon emissions, as supporters from every part of Europe, and occasionally beyond, travel to cheer for their teams (UEFA, 2019).
Construction and Maintenance of Stadiums
The stadiums themselves are another notable source of emissions. They require considerable energy for lighting, heating, and cooling, often generated from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases when combusted. Additionally, the construction or renovation of stadiums for the tournament can also lead to substantial emissions.
Waste Management
Another environmental hurdle is waste management. The fans attending the matches produce significant waste, ranging from food packaging to match programs. If this waste is not properly managed, it can end up in landfills, where it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.
Fan Travel
The UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, a monumental event in the world of football, drew an impressive attendance of 574,875 fans (UEFA, 2022b). These fans, traveling from various locations, contributed to the event’s overall carbon footprint. To estimate this impact, the average CO2 emissions per passenger per km for different modes of transport are needed.
The figure underscores the environmental impact of such large-scale events. The actual emissions could be higher or lower depending on various factors. Despite initiatives, some critics contend that the emissions may be higher than reported, and the offsetting measures may need to be revised (UEFA, 2022a). This analysis highlights the importance of considering environmental impacts when planning and attending such events.
Calculation of CO2 Emissions of UEFA 2022
The UEFA European Championships are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Although the event celebrates sports, it has a substantial environmental impact, primarily due to transportation, stadium energy consumption, and waste production. In the context of UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, we estimated the carbon emissions associated with fan travel to the tournament. The slide outlined two factors that were considered: average CO2 emissions per passenger per kilometer (different modes of transport) and an average distance of 500 km traveled by each fan. The difficulties and uncertainties inherent in these estimates must be understood nonetheless.
To begin with, the CO2 emissions data we used are derived from broad-based data. These averages might not precisely mirror the unique situations of the fans who attended the tournament. For example, the emissions from car travel can fluctuate significantly based on different factors. Such factors might be the model of the car and the number of people in the car.
Likewise, the emissions from air travel can differ based on the aircraft type, fuel efficiency, and how complete the flight is. Those are the emissions from the production of the fuel used in the vehicles or the emissions from the infrastructure supporting transportation (airports and roads).
Finally, the calculation assumes that all fans traveled to the tournament using the modes of transport for which we have average CO2 emissions data. In reality, some fans may have used other modes of transport, like motorcycles or ferries. These could have different emissions profiles due to a dissimilar internal motor.
This provides a general sense of the scale of the emissions from fan travel to the tournament. However, with things noted previously, the actual emissions could have been higher or lower. It can be said that the UEFA Championships pose a substantial environmental challenge.
References
Ritchie, H. (2020). Which form of transport has the smallest carbon footprint? Our World in Data. Web.
UEFA. (2019). UEFA’s pledge towards an environmentally conscious UEFA EURO 2020. UEFA. Web.
UEFA. (2022a). UEFA commits to ambitious climate targets and joins race to zero campaign. UEFA. Web.
UEFA. (2022b). Biggest women’s EURO crowds: 2022 finals the best attended ever. UEFA. Web.