Tottenham to host world’s first net zero carbon elite football game — but is a carbon-neutral match possible?

Sky says the remaining emissions will be offset through its reforestation projects in East Africa and the creation of new UK woodlands. Tottenham and Sky have also pledged to plant trees near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium later this year.

But does the math add up?

adding it to zero

Climate experts say that while the message and goal of reaching zero is a worthy one, using biofuels, switching from plastics to cardboard and offsetting the world’s largely uninterrupted use of fossil fuels is a major political and commercial issue. There are band-aids solutions to crises. .

“We know that sport at the highest level has a profound effect on people’s behavior,” Andrew Sims, coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance and co-director of the New Weather Institute, tells Granthshala Sport.

“The fact that they are talking about these issues around diet, around food, around an emphasis on the use of buses instead of private cars, is an incredibly important indication of what kinds of behaviors we should be taking. Change is needed.”

“It often promises to remove emissions from that stagnant store of carbon by planting trees. But as we’ve also seen last year, some of those trees that were planted may simply die as a natural process; they may not mature; they may catch fire and burn, as has happened with some offset schemes.”

“So they are unreliable, the calculus is very unstable in a way that they could potentially remove carbon from the atmosphere, and that didn’t solve the problem that you put pollution into in the first place. It’s a pity the problem is actually there.” Kind of like carbon laundering rather than a solution.”

Sky told Granthshala it measured baseline emissions for Premier League games and then looked at ways to cut emissions through travel, energy and fuel consumption, and food. It is working with Natural Capital Partners and RSK to collect and verify their data.

But when asked whether Sky would make its findings public or share them with Granthshala after the match, he said he would not.

And herein lies half the problem. Offsetting can be effective, depending on how many trees are planted, what types and where they are. And there must be some role for offsetting to achieve net zero, according to forestry scientist Louis Verchot, who heads the Land Restoration Group at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

“Such leadership is needed and Tottenham’s efforts to reduce its environmental impacts are commendable. It is great that Tottenham are working with Hotspur and Sky Chelsea to make the match a net zero emissions match. More initiatives are needed to show what is possible,” he told Granthshala.

“Hopefully, they will make their actions transparent and offsetting results traceable. A match being net zero is a great start, but it is only a match and therefore only a start. The latest IPCC results make this clear. that we need to make all economic enterprise zero in the coming decade.”

Calls to eliminate emissions-heavy sponsors

Spurs have already been named the greenest team in the Premier League, a title earned in January in recognition of the sustainable measures implemented around the club: a stadium powered by 100 percent renewable energy, recycled plastic bottles Player shirts made from and borders on single-use plastic.

For Sky, the #GameZero initiative is in line with the commitment announced last year to go carbon neutral by 2030.

Fans from 49 professional clubs, including Tottenham, Chelsea and West Ham, will earn points for their teams in CUP26, which are designed to reduce their carbon footprint, including having a meat-free meal or a screen-free evening. Highest scoring team to win the CUP26 trophy in the first week of the COP26 summit.

CUP26 highlights perhaps one of the most important objectives of #GameZero: to encourage fans to reduce their carbon footprint – a responsibility many other sports teams have taken on as well.

“I think the stage is absolutely unmatched, the audience’s attentiveness is absolutely unmatched.”

According to Hanzor, there are still barriers preventing sports teams from going green, including access to clean energy grids, the need to heat or cool indoor venues, and the current constraint of air travel.

“We just have no option but to take a fully renewable powered flight – that’s not realistic,” Hanzor said.

“Since there’s no option to make that switch, it becomes really difficult for people to cut emissions in that sense, and so you look at the offsetting side or you consider reducing flying.”

And as far as football in Europe is concerned, Sims noted that the sport could do more from a sponsorship standpoint.

“I think one of the other issues for sport, which is a blind spot at the moment, is the sheer number of sponsors and advertisers that represent high-carbon goods and services … the airlines and the big SUV carmakers that sport the sport. sponsor,” he said.

“I would say this is a place where to watch football. It has to take the major pollutants out of the advertising and sponsorship within the sport.”

football goes vegan

Tottenham are not the only team to reduce emissions and sustainability.

At Forest Green, the team bus and lawn mower are both fully electric, which is a cleaner option than biofuels, as long as the electricity is renewable. The grass on the pitch is free of pesticides, players’ shirts and shin pads are made from biodegradable bamboo, and the food served on match days is completely free of animal products.

It’s an approach that has sparked derisive chants from opponents and resistance from fans – one said the club “advances the vegetarian agenda a lot” – but there has also been a swell of support from within the club and the local community.

“We are careful not to point our fingers at anyone. We don’t want to preach,” Forest Green owner Dale Vince told Granthshala in 2019.

“All we can do is live our lives and educate people who want to be educated. For every fan we’ve lost, we’ve gained 10. Our attendance is at an all-time high.”

“Sometimes, it can only take a single person who has gained a profile and following among young people to shift expectations, or to introduce new ideas to something that never happened. seemed under the patronage of scientists and policy idiots, something we should all be thinking about,” Sims said.

“I think sport has a huge role to play in this.”