Ahead of the COP 26 conference on climate change due to start in Glasgow on Nov. 1, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pledged to halve its “direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions” by 2030. Its previous pledge was to cut them by 45 percent by the same deadline, in keeping with the 2015 Paris Agreement. The IOC has in addition set an interim deadline of 2024 to achieve a reduction of 30 percent – notably in its travel, energy use and procurement – and the status of “climate positive.” It claims to be carbon-neutral already. By the final deadline it aims to be compensating for all of its emissions and a bit more, mainly by planting an “Olympic Forest” in Mali and Senegal.
In March of last year, moreover, the IOC pledged to make the Olympic Games themselves climate-positive. As of 2030, each Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) will be contractually bound to minimize and compensate for direct and indirect carbon emissions and implement “zero-carbon solutions.” The forthcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris are expected to be climate-positive ahead of schedule.
