Spectators fill their bottles at water points in Paris on August 3.
17:49 JST, August 13, 2024
The International Olympic Committee is promoting a sustainability strategy to reshape the Olympic Games amid climate change and the rising costs of hosting them. This year’s Paris Games, the first Olympics with spectators since the COVID-19 pandemic, were a test case for that approach.
The Olympic Games are extremely costly to their host countries. In addition, fewer and fewer countries are able to host the Winter Olympics as global warming worsens. The IOC recommends using existing and temporary facilities as a way to address these challenges, believing that this will help reduce construction costs and greenhouse gas emissions from construction.
At the Paris Games, 95% of the competition venues were existing or temporary facilities. They included tourist attractions such as the Palace of Versailles and Place de la Concorde, which dazzled athletes and spectators alike.
The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee used renewable energy, such as solar power, to power the venues and worked to reduce the use of plastic, which causes marine pollution.
Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee, said it made no compromises to achieve its ideal. However, the Paris Olympics would have cost around €9 billion, or ¥1.45 trillion. There was also criticism of prioritising the environment over the athletes’ comfort.
Reducing the use of plastic
Spectators formed long lines at water stations at an arena near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, filling their own bottles to quench their thirst.
Sights like this were common, as the Paris Games organizing committee set up water stations at all venues to reduce the use of plastic bottles. Restaurants also eschewed plastic for plates made of paper and other materials.
Such environmental considerations were prompted by the reform agenda adopted by the International Olympic Committee in 2014. In the agenda, the IOC encourages cities to use existing or temporary structures to reduce the costs of hosting the Olympic Games. For this reason, cities are allowed to hold some events outside the host municipality.
After the previous Games in Tokyo were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo organizing committee worked to simplify the Games based on the 2014 reform package.
The revised version of the reform package announced in 2021 places even greater emphasis on sustainability: “The Olympic Games of Paris 2024, Milan Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028 are the first to truly embrace and reflect this new strategic direction.”
The Paris Games organizing committee was very conscious of the UN agenda and social development goals, among other issues. They aimed to halve greenhouse gas emissions compared to the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, both held before the pandemic.
In downtown Paris, fans were encouraged to use not only public transportation but also bicycles as part of efforts to reduce exhaust emissions. A 415-kilometer network of new and existing bike lanes was built to connect stages and other locations, and bike parking for more than 20,000 bikes was prepared.
The only newly built arena in Paris is equipped with seats made from plastic waste, made by a startup based in a deprived neighborhood to tackle unemployment.
No air conditioning
However, many athletes voiced their displeasure. Bedrooms in the Olympic Village were cooled by a system of underfloor water pipes, designed to reduce power consumption. However, there were also hot days with temperatures of over 30 C, and many athletes complained that their rooms had no air conditioning.
Teams from some countries, including Japan, provided their athletes with portable air conditioning units provided by the organizing committee. “I was distracted by the loud noise of the portable air conditioner,” said one Japanese athlete.
Some athletes from South Korea complained that the shuttle buses connecting the Olympic Village to their competition venues were like a sauna because the air conditioning was inadequate. As a result, they moved to a hotel.
For the food in the Olympic Village, the organizing committee sourced most of its ingredients from France to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and increase the use of organic vegetables. However, the food was not popular, with some athletes demanding more meat.
France tried to clean up the Seine to make it a symbol of their environmental awareness, but the triathlon event was postponed because the water quality in the river deteriorated after rains. Some athletes also said that the current of the Seine was strong.
Follow-up research
The Paris Games took several steps to warn people about global warming. “Our goal is to leave a legacy of bringing about change in society and setting new sustainability standards for events,” an official from the organizing committee said proudly.
A committee of experts independent of the organising committee will analyse the effects of these sustainability measures, as well as those of a programme to make sport a habit that has been in place in schools across France since before the Olympic Games.
An impact assessment report will be published next year and then again in five years’ time, in line with guidelines issued a year ago by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
These reports help people decide whether the benefits outweigh the cost of hosting.
Holger Preuss, a professor of sports economics and sociology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany who chairs the expert committee, said the Paris Games will be the first Olympics whose legacy will be fully evaluated. Future Olympics will learn a lot from this evaluation, Preuss said.
If it is proven that the Paris Olympics helped people change their behavior or consciousness, then we can speak of a true legacy.
