2026 World Cup: A climate disaster in the making
In 2022, ahead of the Qatar World Cup, which he promoted as the first “carbon-neutral” edition, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, appeared in a video inviting “everyone who loves football and cares about the environment” to “brandish FIFA’s green card for the planet.” Four years later, the all-powerful head of world football has left his “green card” in his pocket. After being criticized in 2023 by the Swiss Commission for Fairness, FIFA was ordered to “refrain from making climate-neutral World Cup claims in the future.” Three countries (the United States, Canada and Mexico), 16 stadiums, 48 teams, 104 matches: The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be the most polluting in history.
Several independent organizations have tried to assess the carbon footprint of this supersized edition. They have all reached the same conclusion: It will be disastrous. According to “conservative” estimates by the research group Scientists for Global Responsibility, it should generate at least 9 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, a climate aberration. In just five and a half weeks of competition, that is as much as the annual greenhouse gas emissions of a country like Cyprus, with a population of 980,000. That is twice as much as the already highly polluting Qatar World Cup, and four times more than the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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