“What you can generally see in the Olympics is a difference between the rhetoric and the actual events,” said Martin MĂĽller, lead author of the 2021 study. “And the point is that the rhetoric usually prevails.”
The Washington Post spoke to experts to see if the Paris goals are achievable. “It’s possible,” said MĂĽller, who is a professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. “I wouldn’t question the legitimacy of the goal.”
What Paris wants to achieve
The Paris Olympics organizing committee says it has a plan to keep these Games within a budget of 1.58 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent — the same warming impact as driving 376,000 cars for a year.
Previous Olympics have tried to address and account for Games-related emissions using a similar approach, but no recent Games have appeared to have gone as far as Paris plans. Organizers say they will achieve their planned cuts by reducing emissions in three categories: construction, transport and business.
“It was an opportunity for us to organize these Games in a different way,” said Georgina Grenon, director of environmental excellence for Paris 2024, “both to prove that the Games can be done differently, but also to leave a legacy.”
New construction is usually a major source of Games emissions — something organizers can control. While Olympic host cities are often overwhelmed with venue buildings, arenas and other infrastructure, Paris organizers plan to use mostly existing or temporary infrastructure, Grenon said.
What they built new – including the Olympic Village and the aquatic center – produced 30 percent less carbon per square meter than a typical project in France today, he added.
Paris construction targets are achievable, experts said.
“It’s actually relatively easy to get to a 30 percent reduction,” said Victor Olgyay, a building expert at RMI, an energy think tank. For example, some studies have shown that builders could achieve almost a 50 percent reduction in emissions at a similar cost by using alternative materials instead of traditional cement, concrete and steel, he said.
To meet its emissions target, Paris has built many structures, including the water arena, from wood, low-carbon cement or materials salvaged from demolition.
Strategies to limit emissions from construction are “generally good practices and lead to a low carbon footprint,” said Nora Esram, senior director of research at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “We have the materials, we have the technology. These are not new.”
Paris organizers expect to sell 12.8 million tickets for the Games, with spectators producing about 395,000 metric tons of carbon emissions while traveling, according to Grenon.
This emissions estimate is lower than what was predicted for the 2012 London Olympics. Those Games attracted more than 11 million spectators, which were expected to produce 456,000 metric tons of emissions, according to a pre-match report. A post-match report found that London spectators’ emissions were even higher than expectedthough he did not specify how many of those emissions came from travel.
“The visitor trip estimate seems relatively low to me,” MĂĽller said. “Perhaps Paris has the same kind of journey [as London]. They are in a similar location, globally, to London.”
Grenon said it is too early to know where Paris spectators will come from or how they travel. “It’s still an estimate,” he said. “We haven’t sold all the tickets.”
The organizers cannot control how spectators will travel to the Games. All they can do is encourages fans to travel by train when possible — especially if they come from nearby European countries. Olympic Games partner Air France touts deal for fans from far-flung countries to book flights to France with an intermediate journey by train in destinations such as Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Nice, Marseille and Lille, which will host football, handball and sailing events.
The Olympic Committee recruits athletes to set a good example. Four national teams — from the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium and Switzerland — agreed to travel by train. Games officials and 15,000 athletes are expected to generate an additional 142,000 metric tons of travel emissions.
“This will avoid transport and air travel [emissions] completely? Certainly not,” Grenon said. “But at least we’re trying to do what we can at this stage in 2024 to address the issue.”
As during the London and Rio games, Paris organizers are encouraging spectators to travel around the city using public transport or bicycles.
Olympic organizers say they have virtually zeroed out their energy emissions. Electricity and natural gas will make up less than 1 percent of the Games’ total footprint, according to official estimates.
Part of the Games’ energy will come from solar panels, which will decorate the roofs of the Olympic Village, float on the surface of the Seine and hang over the new aquatics stadium.
The rest will come from the French electricity grid ie dominated by nuclear power and produces some of the the lowest emissions in Europe. Olympic organizers say they have struck a deal with French national utility Électricité de France (EDF) to buy renewable energy equivalent to that consumed by the Games.
EDF has also created new back-up electrical connections for the Olympic stadiums, which will make the power supply more reliable. As a result, Paris organizers say they will not be running any of the back-up diesel generators that stadiums usually keep on standby in case of power outages.
Organizers would not share details about the Olympic Flame, which they said would be unveiled at the Opening Ceremonies. During London Olympicsthe gas-burning torch consumed more energy than any single stadium, venue or housing complex.
MĂĽller said it was not surprising that energy emissions would be so low since French electricity is so clean. In addition, he said, “most of the energy emissions are confined to the two-week period of the actual Olympics, which is relatively short.”
More savings could come from reducing the amount of energy needed to cool buildings. In addition to planting thousands of trees around Paris, the city has installed cisterns and light surfaces and sidewalks to help combat the summer heat. In recent years, France, along with other parts of Europe, has endured record-breaking heat waves during the summer months.
“These make a big difference,” Olgyay said. “It will be much cooler. You’re more comfortable, but your building is also more comfortable, so that will reduce the impact of that heat on the buildings.”
To further reduce energy use, Games organizers said the Olympic Village — which features buildings with improved insulation — will use a geothermal water cooling system. Instead of traditional air conditioning, the buildings will rely on a network of pipes that will recycle water that will be cooled underground.