Although it might seem at first glance that sport and climate law do not have much in common, the opposite is true. The problem of climate change and its legal regulation seeps into all areas of human activity, including sport. It is true, however, that the level of impact on the planet varies for different sports activities. Large international tournaments, which are environmentally demanding not only for the venues (e.g. construction of new stadiums, accommodation of fans), but also for the climate (most athletes, their teams and supporters travel to tournaments by plane) are a huge environmental burden. It is therefore important to try to ensure that such international tournaments do not contribute to worsening global climate change and that their carbon footprint is as small as possible.
On Sunday, November 20, 2022, the 22nd FIFA World Cup began in Doha, Qatar. It was one of the most watched sporting events in history, with an estimated 5 billion viewers from around the world watching the championship. 1.2 million people were going to the venue itself, who flew in from all over the world.
Like many other sporting events in recent times[1], this championship has been surrounded by many controversies. There was talk of violations of human rights and the rights of foreign workers. A report by the British newspaper The Guardian entitled "Built on exploitation" shows the reality of people who were involved in the construction of stadiums, a new airport, hotels and buildings related to the World Cup and were forced to work and live in very poor conditions. In 2017, after significant international criticism, the Qatari authorities took effort to carry out extensive reforms in the field of labour law by signing an agreement with the International Labour Organization. However, according to a report by Amnesty International, the legislation adopted is insufficiently enforced and implemented, leaving workers at the mercy of employers. According to a February 2021 report by The Guardian, at least 6,500 foreign workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have died since Qatar won the bid to host one of the world's biggest sporting events, with the number not being final. However, Qatari authorities deny these figures.
However, concerns about the working conditions of migrants are only one of the problems concerning the Qatar World Cup. Human rights, especially political and civil rights, are restricted on a daily basis in an authoritarian state where all executive and legislative power is concentrated in the hands of one emir who inherits his position. Women cannot marry, travel abroad, or use certain forms of reproductive health care without the permission of a male guardian.
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, so there were concerns about the safety of LGBTQI+ people, and (not only) during the football championship. Human Rights Watch even warned of possible persecution of people who stand up for the rights of the LGBTQI+ community during the tournament. Fears have been confirmed - seven European teams whose captains planned to go to the World Cup wearing rainbow armbands, part of an anti-discrimination campaign, eventually gave up the armbands under the threat of an immediate yellow card.
The choice of Qatar to host the World Cup is also problematic in terms of climate.
Seven football stadiums, countless new hotels, and even a new airport runway were built for the tournament, but their use after the tournament is over remains unclear. In addition, around 1.2 million fans were expected to attend the World Cup, most of them traveling by plane, which significantly increased the World Cup's carbon footprint.
Already in 2019, the World Championships in Athletics were held in the capital of Qatar, which the athletes themselves called a "disaster". Due to the high outdoor temperatures common in the state, the athletics stadium was air-conditioned during the competitions, a method of cooling that requires a significant amount of energy, which in the emirate is largely produced from fossil fuels. Because of the year-round high temperatures, even football stadiums are air-conditioned.
Although the Qatari authorities promised to try to keep the carbon footprint of both sporting world events neutral, fears were growing that these were just empty words. Some athletes have responded with an open letter calling for FIFA to stop claiming the World Cup in Qatar is climate neutral and launch a review of the carbon footprint of the Women's World Cup, which will be held in July 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, they are also calling for a stronger and more responsible approach to sustainability and reducing emissions. According to the letter, carbon offsets schemes should only be used as a last resort for offsetting emissions.
FIFA itself presented its climate strategy at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, in which it committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 at the latest. However, critics say the strategy is only superficial and FIFA has not published reference years or greenhouse gas inventories.
FIFA has also released a Greenhouse gas accounting report on Qatar 2022, examining the carbon footprint of the World Cup. However, this report is widely criticized because it relies on carbon offsets, the standard of which was also set by FIFA itself, and there is no independent third party to certify the quality of the purchased credits. According to FIFA's report, the carbon footprint of the tournament was 3.6 million tonnes in emissions, however, according to Lancaster scientist Mike Berners-Lee of Carbon Market Watch, this is a great underestimation, and he reckons that the actual amount of carbon footprint was as high as three times. Julien Jreissati, Greenpeace's Middle East program director, accused the organizers of misleading fans and stressed that the tournament's zero-emissions claims "could be considered greenwashing"[2]. Gilles Dufrasne, a researcher at Carbon Market Watch and author of the Qatar 2022 Climate Impact Assessment report, said claims of carbon neutrality are "misleading and dishonest in terms of the actual climate impact of action".
Due to the greenwashing of the football World Cup, non-profit organizations began to file complaints and lawsuits for false advertising. In France, the non-profit organization Notre Affaire à Tous has appealed to the body that watches over advertising standards because it perceives the World Cup's carbon neutrality claims to be false. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Switzerland. All the lawsuits are based on research by Carbon Market Watch, which questioned the calculation of the World Cup's carbon footprint as well as the use of carbon offsets. Carbon Market Watch itself states in its research: “The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is being promoted as a 'carbon neutral' event. This means that its net impact on the climate is zero or negligible. However, our investigation of the available evidence casts serious doubt on this claim, demonstrating that the claims likely underestimate the true level of emissions and the tournament's climate impact. These are not harmless measures, as they mislead players, fans, sponsors and the public that their (potential) participation in this event will not have any negative effects on the climate.”
In addition, the main sponsors of the "climate neutral" race were companies such as Quatar Airways, Coca-Cola, and Hyundai, which themselves are often criticized for greenwashing practices in the sale of their products. The World Cup also "received" several prizes for greenwashing awarded by experts from various scientific fields.
Qatar itself is a country with a disproportionately high carbon footprint. According to a 2014 report by the World Wildlife Fund, its carbon footprint per capita is the second highest in the world, as it is one of the largest producers of energy and energy raw materials, such as natural gas and liquefied natural gas.
At the same time, however, Qatar is a country highly affected by climate change and is already facing warming more than 2°C, with scientific research predicting that by 2070 temperatures will reach beyond the tolerable limit for the human body.
Qatar officially supports the efforts of the international community in the field of climate law and is a party to important international climate documents such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Qatar also hosted COP18 in 2012, where it proclaimed its efforts to stop global climate change.
In the climate action plan from 2021, Qatar signed up not only to comply with its international obligations, but also its obligations towards future generations. He materialized this in the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 and in the specific measures by which he should achieve this. However, as shown on page 41 of the action plan, this declaration is of highly questionable significance, as the alleged 25% reduction in emissions in 2030 was calculated from the potential amount of emission that Qatar would emit that year under a business-as-usual scenario.
There are also numerous statements by state representatives reflecting the importance of climate change, the degree of threat it poses to its existence, and the need for its solution. However, with its actual operation, long-term planning, but also its determination to compete for the title of host country of similar monstrous sporting events with a significant negative impact on the environment, Qatar turns its back on all these declarations and facts and, even from the position of a country significantly threatened by climate change, is heating the global climate.
For these, but also many other reasons, for the sports and non-sport world, Qatar is an incomprehensible choice for holding the football World Cup. When one takes into account the level of human rights violations, the environmental burden, the extent to which it was necessary to build facilities and infrastructure, but also the naturally completely unsuitable climatic conditions of the country, one cannot help but wonder why FIFA made this decision. Countless people around the world are therefore asking themselves how the decision of this football juggernaut could be influenced, when not only human rights organizations and experts but also players and fans were opposed to it, and it does not significantly change FIFA's position. Although FIFA seems to be hearing the call for a more sustainable future, its claims of carbon neutrality are not credible, based on unverifiable measurement methods and mainly designed to paint only the best image of FIFA. Despite FIFA's claims of carbon neutrality, the championship's carbon footprint was likely very high, which both FIFA and Qatar are actively trying to cover up with a misleading and deceptive greenwashing campaign. It remains to be seen whether FIFA will learn from the yellow card society has given it for the current one when choosing other venues for the championships.
[1] Greenwashing is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: "the activities of a company or organization designed to give people the impression that it cares about the environment, even though its actual activities actually harm the environment"
[2] For example, this year's Winter Olympics in China: https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-59644043
* Students of the Faculty of Law of the UK - CLASS interns in 2022.
Original article: https://www.ilaw.cas.cz/vyzkum/class/komentujeme/