As In Past Events, Olympic Sustainability Goals Peg Absurdo-Meter In Runup To Beijing Winter Games
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China’s government promises that just about every aspect of the Olympics will be “green.” According to officials, the Games will be “carbon-neutral.” President Xi Jinping has said they will be “inclusive, open and clean.” Such claims, part of China’s effort to cast itself as a global leader on sustainability and climate change, are difficult to square with the country’s broader environmental challenges. Beijing’s water scarcity is a concern for environmentalists, with one estimate suggesting it could take 200 years for water piped into the city to return water resources to 1998 levels.
The country is also the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and has avoided announcing a moratorium on coal-fired power. Even as Beijing organizers promise to buy purely renewable electricity for Games venues, the capital and surrounding Hebei province, where co-host Zhangjiakou is located, rely on fossil fuels for the bulk of their electricity. China consumes half the world’s coal; output rose nearly 5 percent to a record 4.07 billion tons last year as the government ordered more production to combat power shortages.
That China’s Games-specific pledges may ultimately fail to translate into progress on environmental causes fits with a habit of the Olympics disappointing on its goal to encourage sustainability, which became a pillar of the sporting movement in the 1990s. Since then, hosts have used the spotlight to tout green credentials — only to repeatedly draw skepticism from environmental campaigners. Sochi 2014, described by Russia as the “cleanest ever” Olympics, resulted in severe damage to a major mountain stream and illegal dumping of construction waste. In South Korea, PyeongChang 2018, despite being the first Games to obtain global certification for sustainable events, was criticized for cutting down a forest of rare trees.
One assessment comparing each event from 1992 to 2020 found that, contrary to official policy, Games were becoming less — not more — sustainable. “There is quite the disconnect between the rhetoric on the one hand and the outcomes on the other,” said Martin Müller, a professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Without any independent assessment, host countries are largely their own arbiters of success in reaching sustainability goals. “The [International Olympic Committee] doesn’t have fixed guidelines or grades that they impose on the host,” Müller added.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/01/20/china-winter-olympics-snow-pollution/
