Qatar 2022: The future of sporting events?

By Leon Hargreaves

For the first time in history, The FIFA World Cup was held in the Middle East, attracting over 1.4 million fans (Qatar 2022). Following the announcement in 2010, Qatar faced the challenge of constructing eight new sporting arenas including the 80,000 capacity Lusail stadium in just 12 years. Combined with the increased demand for accommodation, transport and policing, could this be done sustainably? What innovative measures did Qatar take to fulfil their carbon neutral World Cup claim?

All eight stadiums were constructed following sustainable building standards, regulated by the Global Sustainability Assessment system (FIFA world cup sustainability report 2022). One venue which defines sustainable innovation is Stadium 974 with a capacity of 44,000 and is made entirely from shipping containers Fully demountable with the potential to be transported and reconstructed in another location, it is one of a kind and significantly reduces carbon emissions through the reduced demand for construction. Following the tournament, the area which stadium 974 occupies will be transformed into a waterfront development, acting as a hub for business start-ups. This will lead to job creation helping to support the local economy long after the world cup has finished. Offsetting carbon emissions requires cutting edge innovation which the construction of the 800MW Al Kharsaah solar power plant provides. Costing $467 million, the plant will supply approximately 10% of Qatar’s electricity demand while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 26 million tonnes. This doubles Qatar’s renewable energy supply to 20% and could potentially have a positive influence on surrounding middle eastern countries to do the same. Another step Qatar took to achieve their carbon neutral claim is through energy conservation. All stadiums were built with revolutionary air-cooling systems, using a combination of insulation and targeted spot cooling, meaning the system only had to be activated an hour before the game As a result, the process is 40% more efficient that existing techniques, reducing the demand for energy and therefore carbon emissions

However, the claim “carbon neutral” implies that the environmental effect on the world should be zero and is therefore argued to be incredibly misleading.

The reasons are: Qatar has significantly underestimated their carbon emissions and the initiatives to “offset” the emissions don’t involve removing carbon from the atmosphere. Mike Berners Lee, a professor at Lancaster University calculated the actual emissions to be way over 10 million tonnes, almost three times higher than the 3.6 million tonnes estimated by Qatar (BBC 2022). One factor increasing emissions is the approximately 500 daily shuttle flights into Qatar for fans who are staying in neighbouring countries such as the UAE. With 1.4 million fans arriving to Qatar and only 30,000 hotel rooms, this challenge could have never been overcome sustainably. This therefore poses the question: Why did FIFA allow Qatar to host the world cup in the first place?

Although the Qatar world cup saw some creative innovation such as stadium 974, the solar plant construction and the new air conditioning system, constructing eight new stadiums which are likely to be used for this event only, outweighs the sustainable initiatives. The past three world cups have had an average carbon dioxide emission of 2.7 million tonnes, demonstrating the significant effect on the environment Qatar had.

This was not only the most expensive world cup ever at $6.5 billion but also the most emissive.

So, how can we learn from this and reduce the environmental effects of large sporting events using innovation? Perhaps as technology becomes more advanced the sporting experience could be made completely virtual with fans watching the games from home using Virtual Reality. However, owing to the economic benefits a world cup brings to a nation this is unlikely Therefore, a more likely option would be to only consider host nations which already have the infrastructure suitable for a world cup such as stadiums and green transport to each venue This would reduce the need for construction and reduce emissions caused by travel. Despite it being a difficult task, there is certainly potential to improve the environmental effects of major sporting events.