World Cup host country Qatar said it would count emissions from daily flights carrying fans during the tournament between the Gulf emirates in the event’s overall carbon footprint on Tuesday.
Qatar says the month-long tournament, which kicks off on Sunday, will be “carbon neutral”, but environmental experts have questioned the rigour of its plan to count and offset all emissions from the event.
There had been questions in recent months when airlines, including Qatar Airways and FlyDubai, said they would increase the number of daily flights between Doha and neighbouring Gulf cities to ferry thousands of fans overnight outside. from Qatar.
The host country is smaller than the US state of Connecticut and does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the more than 1.2 million fans expected at the tournament.
Qatar’s Environment Minister, Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani told The Associated Press that emissions from daily flights would be counted.
Speaking in Egypt at the U.N. climate conference, Sheikh Faleh said Qatar would “lead the standard” in achieving a climate-friendly sporting event.
Qatar is one of the world’s top exporters of liquefied natural gas. Last year, it outlined a national climate change action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030.
Sheikh Faleh told delegates at the COP27 meeting that Qatar would continue “working on translating these ambitions to facts.”