Eco-Friendly Ambitions: The Green Efforts Behind the Paris 2024 Olympics

With the excitement of the ongoing Olympic games, what people don’t immediately realize is the work going on behind the scenes to make the 2024 Olympics as eco-friendly as possible. 

Paris 2024

Unfortunately, the largest contributor to the game’s emissions comes from everyone traveling to Paris to compete and cheer on their team, in which there is currently no alternate and environmentally friendly solution. However, the Paris Olympic Games committee has aimed to reduce the games carbon emissions in half from the last Tokyo Olympics, stating we have a shared responsibility to implement a greener games. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics generated 2.73 millions tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Paris is utilizing mostly existing venues or temporary structures for the events, significantly reducing environmental impact compared to building new facilities. For necessary construction, they are using low-carbon concrete and recycled materials. Additionally, the games are powered almost entirely by zero-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar.

The host city is also enhancing public transportation to reduce vehicle emissions and sourcing 80% of the food locally to minimize waste. However, a quarter of the games' emissions will still come from travel, a factor largely beyond the host's control. This raises questions about the responsibility of the host city for these emissions and what can be done to mitigate them, questions that remain unresolved.

While there have been criticisms regarding the efficiency and resources of the current games, Paris's ultimate goal of hosting a more environmentally friendly Olympics is commendable. It’s important to acknowledge that not every host country has the same advantages as France, such as a decarbonized energy grid and existing sports infrastructure, but other countries should put more emphasis on environmental considerations while allowing countries to showcase their cities and cultures.

We must also move away from blaming individual countries for their carbon emissions, especially when this enables them to claim reductions by shifting emissions elsewhere. With the Olympics being symbolic with global unity, we must recognize that it will take just that, unity, to lower these emissions and help the environment.