The Olympic Games’ challenge of cutting travel emissions is “a question that sports events should continue to ask themselves”, the top Paris 2024 green official has said, after travel caused more than half of all total emissions and raised concerns for future events.
Paris pitched this year’s Olympics as the most sustainable ever, halving the average carbon footprint of London 2012 and Rio 2016 and setting the bar for future Games hosted by Los Angeles and Brisbane.
Despite the overall success in reducing emissions, the level of travel pollution exceeded original estimates by almost 60 per cent, according to the official post-Games report. This included journeys by spectators, athletes and delegates to and within Paris and other event locations.