2024 Olympics sees its eco-friendly goals face accusations of ‘greenwashing’

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have been promoted as the most eco-friendly Games ever. However, experts are raising concerns about the effectiveness of these sustainability commitments, calling them “greenwashing.”

Paris organizers have set a goal to halve the carbon emissions of this year’s Games compared to previous Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and London. To achieve this, they are investing over $16 million in carbon credits to offset the emissions generated during the event. This involves funding climate-friendly projects worldwide to compensate for the pollution in Paris.

“As climate change accelerates, the Games’ response to it must do the same,” Marie Sallois, IOC director for sustainability, said. “The Paris 2024 organizers are stepping up to the challenge, and they are doing so by focusing first and foremost on the core part of addressing it: by cutting emissions.”

Some of these credit-generating projects have faced scrutiny from environmental watchdogs over the legitimacy of their claimed benefits. Organizations like Earth Day and Carbon Market Watch have questioned the transparency of the Olympics’ emissions assessment and whether the purchased carbon credits will effectively balance out the pollution they are meant to offset.

“Though commendable, the Paris 2024 climate strategy aim to minimize the event’s carbon footprint is incomplete, and falls short of achieving transparency,” Carbon Market Watch said in a statement. “Transparency regarding carbon credit purchases is lacking, hindering public engagement and an assessable oversight of the event’s environmental responsibility.”

In addition to carbon credits, the Games aim to meet a 100% renewable energy goal through another form of emissions offsetting. The use of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) means that the electricity used in the stadiums may not come directly from renewable sources. Instead, the Olympics will pay for green energy to be produced elsewhere. The New Climate Institute has noted that this practice can lead to significant misrepresentation of reported energy emissions from users of these certificates.

Despite the criticisms, the Olympics have introduced measures to address some of these renewable energy sourcing concerns. It is using blockchain technology to ensure that the power consumed from non-renewable sources during the Games is accurately matched and injected back into France’s power grid from domestic clean power providers.