Winter Olympics in Carbon Neutral Pledge

Figures involved in organising next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver have expressed confidence in being able to attract corporate sponsorship as a means of preventing the games contributing to climate change through making them carbon neutral – a prevention that, according to estimates, has a $3.6 million price tag attached to it.

It is anticipated that around 300,000 tonnes of CO2 will be emitted during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.  This 300,000 tonnes – a figure rooted in a two-year-old study and due to be updated later this year – will, unprecedentedly, include emissions associated with transporting participants and spectators to Vancouver by aircraft.

The imminent update will take into account hi-tech, energy efficient technologies being integrated into the construction of Olympic venues, in addition to other emission-saving efforts.

According to information given to the media, discussions are presently underway between the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC) and carbon offset management firms, with a view to arranging funding for carbon credit purchases.

"We're very confident we will be able to get partners on this," John Furlong, the chief executive of VANOC, told journalists.

Renewable Energy Technology Investments

The credits themselves would be linked to renewable energy technology investments, or similar ventures.

Vancouver’s carbon-neutral pledge links it to other Olympic Games host cities which have promised similar things.  However, according to the organising body, their approach differs in taking in account emissions not directly related to the games. 

“We have expanded the scope by taking in air travel”, the head of VANOC’s sustainability programme, Linda Coady, stated.

Such air travel, according to officials, is set to generate the highest level of CO2 emissions of any activity related to either the Winter Olympic Games, or the Paralympic Games, which will take place in February and March 2010 respectively.

The Winter Olympics announcement coincided with a conference, held in Vancouver and focused on ways in which sport can participate in combating climate change.

“What the [IOC – International Olympic Committee] has done, what the IOC environmental commission has done and indeed what the Olympic movement has embraced is, for me, a return to the original Olympic spirit”, Monaco’s Prince Albert II said, at the conference, adding: “A philosophy of life with the goal of placing sport at the service of the harmonious development of man.”