Efforts Toward Environmental Sustainability

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is discussing the different methods of promoting sustainability and combating the negative environmental impacts that cities hosting the Olympic games have brought forth. Multiple solutions being discussed are ways to incentivize the people to reduce their personal carbon footprints during the Olympic games in order to make it more environmentally sustainable.

“Working on long-term growth in infrastructure and making a common sense framework are the main goals,” Bernard Rajzman, the IOC representative from Brazil, stated. In the discussion of sustainability and environmental impacts there are several topics brought up including reducing carbon emissions, reducing carbon footprint, and recycling. References to the past were made while discussing the importance of environmental sustainability in regards to the recent issues at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro of 2016.

After one proposed solution of shutting down traffic in the host city of the games, one representative raised questions of what would happen to the small businesses during this time and what would the overall economic consequences be. Once this point was brought up, representatives from one of the working papers spoke on the incentives that would be given in order to promote the use of public transportation, as well as promoting small businesses that may be affected by the increased use of public transportation and even closure of traffic as previously mentioned.

“Making sure that not only are the games environmentally sustainable, but economically sustainable as well,” Princess Nora of Liechtenstein, the IOC representative, commented about her ideas on increasing the Olympic games’ sustainability.

One main point brought up from several delegates was the lack of the need to build a stadium specifically for the Olympic games, unless it had ulterior purposes for the future. “The reusability of Olympic stadiums as homeless shelters, and the importance of preserving wildlife are some of the main focuses being discussed,” Princess Nora further elaborated on this point in the debate.

The main split in consensus that the IOC is debating is whether the methods of sustainability should be rules and be forced upon countries or if they should be incentivized suggestions. One representative, Anita L. Defrantz, stated, “There is an obvious consensus in the fact that sustainability is the main goal, but we can not infringe on the sovereignty of foreign countries; rather we must incentivize.”