Olympic games without climate change

Sochi 2014 greening – challenges and opportunities

Moscow, 11.09.09, RIAN conference center

“The Olympic games without climate change” was the topic of a seminar on 11th of September in the RIAN press-center. The event was organized by the Ecological Supervision Board of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme. The Olympic team invited the best experts in climate change, ecology and games organization to brainstorm possible sustainable solutions for mitigation and offsetting of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the Games. RuGBC members were invited to join the group and input their expertise in possible emissions mitigation actions available through sustainable construction.

Olympic games are known not only from their positive side – bringing people together in their aspiration for sport but as well from their negative impact on nature and local ecosystems. Games influence ecosystems in various dimensions, including pressure on local biodiversity, waste, climate change and influence on life of the local communities. Climate change effect was considered during the seminar.

Sochi 2014 was announced as a carbon neutral Olympics, which means that the Games should reduce the amount of GHG and offset the remaining emissions. It was reported that the most highest source of emissions during the Olympics are transport (most of the guests and athletes come by air, plane Moscow-Sochi – Moscow produces 1 ton of CO2 per person), construction (impact during construction and after, delivery of materials), accommodation and energy consumed during the Games. The danger of the Games is in its severe impact on local ecosystems. The harmful effects are produced during a short period of time, with dramatic effects if the appropriate measures are not put in place.

The seminar was opened by moderator – Dmitriy Kolosov, head of the Ecological Supervision Board of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. Dmitriy introduced seminar participants and outlined plans of the Committee towards reducing the harmful impact of the Olympics. He announced that the Ecological Strategy of Sochi 2014 would be announced shortly to a wider audience and it would include greenhouse gas emissions reductions as one of the most important topics on a list. “We are going to maintain the level of emissions on a reasonable level during and after the Olympics. Our collaboration with UNEP is a good indicator of our serious approach to this issue”- said Dmitriy.

Kokorin Alexey from the WWF, a leading figure in the dabate on climate change, was invited to talk about new the Copenhagen agreement and how it could change Sochi’s approach to greenhouse gas emissions. Due to a new Agreement, which would be signed in December 2009, all developed countries are to reduce their emissions by 50% before 2050. “It is important to consider the Olympic games as a part of the long-term commitment to Russia emissions reduction plan. Our country would be forced to reduce emissions even if the Agreement doesn`t come into power. Global warming is more reality now than ever. There is no other way”, – commented Alexey.

Nikolay Mishustin, regional manager of First Climate explained tools to offset the carbon emissions and illustrated them with the First Climate experience during FIFA 2006 in Germany.

Hartmut Stahl, Head of program “Sports and Environment”, at UNEP, talked about the history of greening the Games. The starting point was Sydney 2000, where the ecological aspect of the games was introduced, through Salt Lake 2002, Torino 2006 (where the first experience of the Game emissions estimation was implied) to Beijing, the first Green Games.. The most important issue, Hartmut mentioned is to find appropriate finance to meet compensation goals and spread responsibility on harmful impacts. All aspects (pre-event time, visitors, logistic, construction of sport venues and accommodation) of pollution have to be addressed.

Aleksandr Hakhodin, Institute of Global Climate Change, spoke about the measures already undertaken to estimate current base line emissions. He explained the methods of monitoring and measures recommended and prepared by their Institute to address future impact.

Paolo Revellino, international expert at UNEP, headed the Ecological Supervision of the Torino Games 2006, shared his experience in estimating carbon emissions during Olympic Games 2006. “Our main constraint during the supervision and implementation stage was a lack of sufficient finance. The situation was worsened by the fact that we were not allowed to raise finance from private companies”,- said Paolo.

Alexey Polyakov, co-founder of the RuGBC was invited to talk about possible reduction of GHG emissions through sustainable construction incentives. Alexey explained the high value of construction impact to the ecology of Sochi 2014, as most of the venues would be newly build. One of the measures to reduce this harmful impact could be by the implementation of sustainable construction standards. Alexey explained in detail the experience of implementing BREEAM standards to the Olympics and how they could be adapted to the Russian built environment. “BREEAM can help to reduce negative effects of the construction and carbon emissions during the games, but what is more important, it can become an Olympic heritage and help to develop green building principles in Russia“, – said Alexey.

Yuriy Matrosov, PhD, Head of energy saving and insulation laboratory, Construction Physics Research Institute, explained current norms and standards in field of energy-efficient construction. “1% of energy saving gives growth of GPD 0.35%, energy saving could become a good opportunity for construction industry. Dmitriy Medvedev announced that Russia would reduce carbon emissions 10-15% to 2020. It should be a good indicator that green building development is on good demand our days”, – said Yuriy.