Copenhagen eyes carbon goal
Euro 2020 poses test of Danish capital’s climate policy
With the aim of going carbon neutral by 2025, Copenhagen faces a challenge as it prepares to host Euro 2020 matches – with the accompanying excesses – while minimizing the climate impact.
This year’s tournament will be spread over 12 European cities ranging from London to Rome to Baku, meaning that fans will crisscross the continent and descend on different cities.
Those supporters will of course need housing, transport and food, all of which will contribute to their carbon footprint.
“It’s always a paradox when you invite people to come to your city... of course it has an impact on carbon emissions and the environment,” Copenhagen’s mayor Frank Jensen told AFP.
“We are focusing on how we can host a huge event with a lower carbon footprint,” added the 58-year-old Social Democrat who has run the city since 2010.
The Danish capital, which was designated as the European Green Capital in 2014, is trying to do everything it can to make Euro 2020 as green as possible. Recycled cups will be used, organic food will be served, waste management will be used and the use of single-use plastics will be limited.
With the addition of UEFA’s promise to plant 50,000 trees in each of the 12 host countries to offset emissions, Copenhagen claims it will be able to limit the environmental impact of the four matches it will host.
But Jens Peter Mortensen of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation thinks more can be done, and efforts could especially be made when it comes to the restaurant business.
The games are by and large welcomed by residents of the capital city, especially since the national team will be hosting their Group B matches against Finland, Belgium and Russia.
Soccer is a unifying force in the small Nordic country of five million inhabitants, of whom some 300,000 play the sport regularly enough to be registered.
In Copenhagen, there is no need to build anything to host athletes and fans, because the capital city already has the appropriate infrastructure – a 38,000-capacity stadium and a brand new metro.
“It’s not fair to say that the Euro games would have a new impact since there would have been events in the stadium anyway,” Mortensen conceded.
The absence of any new construction helps reduce the carbon footprint of the event, but neither the city nor the federation knows what the final impact will be.
The footprint in Copenhagen will depend on “many things which will not be clear until the tournament is over – the number of tourists, fans, officials and so on visiting due to the tournament,” said Mia Kjaergaard, spokeswoman for the Danish Football Association.