Organisers of the Paris Olympics want it to be the greenest ever Games, but athletes are prioritising their health.
ADVERTISEMENTIt was billed as the “greenest [Games] in Olympic history” - but the sustainability dreams of Paris 2024 are melting away as organisers order 2,500 air-conditioning units.
Originally designed without air-con, the eco-friendly Paris Olympic Village includes a geothermal cooling system that pumps cold water from deep beneath the ground to keep indoor temps at least 6°C lower than outside.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” said Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo last year.
But after pushback from Olympic delegations, Paris organisers are now allowing countries to order portable air-con units at their own expense, which will be installed for the duration of the Games. It was announced this week that 2,500 units have been ordered.
Will Paris 2024 still be the greenest ever Games?
As the home to the most significant climate accord on record, the Paris Agreement, there was always going to be pressure on the French capital to deliver an eco-friendly Olympics.
Organisers pledged to more than halve the carbon count compared to London 2012 and Rio 2016, limiting emissions to 1.58 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent for the July-August Games and Paralympics that follow.
Sustainability innovations to achieve the cuts include reducing the number of new buildings and using wood, low-carbon cement and salvaged materials for unavoidable construction.
Digital infrastructure company Equinix is supplying excess data centre heat to warm up Paris’ 2.5 million litre Olympic swimming pool, with stadiums powered by 100 per cent renewable energy - and some featuring their own solar panels.
Catering will be 80 per cent locally sourced and 60 per cent plant based. There are low-carbon transport options to all venues. Surfing has been outsourced to Tahiti, to encourage people to watch on TV rather than fly to spectate.
And then there’s the controversial decision not to include air-conditioning, which consumes 10 per cent of global electricity and leaks planet-warming gases.
“I have a lot of respect for the comfort of athletes, but I think a lot more about the survival of humanity,” Hidalgo said last year of the decision.
No air-con? But Paris 2024 could be the hottest Games on Olympic record
A report issued last month, Rings of Fire II: Heat Risks at the 2024 Paris Olympics, described the 34°C temperatures at Tokyo’s 2021 Games as “a window into an alarming, escalating norm for Summer Olympics”.
With French meteorological service Météo France forecasting higher than normal temperatures for summer across the country, athletes expressed concern about the potential effects of extreme heat, including cramps, exhaustion, heat stroke and even death.
Teams from Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Ireland, Greece and Australia all announced they would pay for their own air-conditioning units, with Australia’s Olympic team even saying it was willing to spend more than $100,000 AUS (€60,000) on keeping its athletes cool.
Games organisers agreed to facilitate the supply, announcing this week that 2,500 units had been ordered. “The aim was to provide a very specific solution for athletes who are facing the match or competition of their lives... and who might have requirements for their comfort and recovery which are higher than in a normal summer,” says deputy director of the Olympic Village Augustin Tran Van Chau.
What are the other environmental controversies around the Paris Olympics?
The air-conditioning meltdown is not the only environmental own-goal the Paris Games has scored.
Last week it was revealed that the Seine is still too filthy with faecal bacteria to host the Olympic opening ceremony or some of the planned swimming competitions.
And organisers had to scrap plans to build a €4.6 million aluminium tower - featuring air-conditioning - for the Tahitian competitions, after local outcry that it would cause damage to coral reefs. A less ambitious tower has since been completed.
