Separately, UNEP teamed up with PUMA and stars from the Cameroon football team, including Samuel Eto’o, to launch the Play for Life campaign to promote biodiversity in Africa.
Based on its findings, the report drew key conclusions for South Africa that could help ensure a long-lasting environmental legacy from the World Cup, including:
- The main areas of success were in energy efficiency, renewable energy and public transport, all of which should be carried forward.
- Renewable energy demonstration projects should be implemented as soon as possible, along with full implementation of a national energy policy, to help steer South Africa away from its dependence on coal.
- The improved transport system should be considered the main legacy project of the event, although efforts are needed to expand the network, ensure roadworthy vehicles and improve the image of public transport.
- While efforts were made to minimize waste, not all host cities and stadia were able to implement proper waste segregation programmes and did not have contracts with companies who would recycle rather than landfill. A coherent and comprehensive policy would have prevented problems, and the implementation of such a policy could be another vital legacy project.
- Host cities and stadiums showed positive initiatives in water conservation, showing the value of watering metering and the need for further installation of such systems.
Looking forward from 2010, UNEP has signed an agreement with the Brazilian government to help green the two major sporting events it will host in the next four years, carrying on with work that has seen the organization advising on Olympic Games since 2004.
The report also made a raft of recommendations for improving the greening of future large sporting events, such as the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Some of the main findings and recommendations are:
- Due to the omission of environmental considerations as one of the seventeen FIFA guarantees for hosting the FIFA World Cup, not enough effort was placed on environmental management. This issue merits serious consideration by FIFA.
- Environmental guidelines, including those for host cities, should be clear and legally binding. Specific benchmarks must be non-negotiable, measurable and backed by law.
- FIFA should consider offsetting its own carbon footprint and encourage its partners to do the same.
- A written and publicly declared commitment by all key stakeholders towards the greening of the event is essential.
- Funding opportunities for greening initiatives should be explored earlier to avoid situations where planned programmes are not implemented due to lack of funds, and the organizing committee should allocate more resource to greening initiatives.
- Generation of environmental data is important for benchmarking performance. The absence of environmental data in South Africa made it difficult to assess the impact of the greening initiatives.
The report also provides an example of a checklist for environmental performance in mass spectator events, which would serve as a simple tool for integrating sustainability concerns up front.
The report was unveiled as UNEP officials met this week with representatives from the Brazilian government, FIFA and the Olympic committee to consider concrete steps to green the two major sporting events.
Source: UNEP.
