UEFA’s 600,000 tree pledge struggling to take root

AMID all the verbiage and lather around COP26, an interesting survey. A sample of British citizens revealed the amount they were willing to pay each week towards tackling climate change. For 66 per cent, no more than five quid. Sounds about right. Not that this amount will have a genuine impact, but that the majority of people are very keen on policies to address environmental wellbeing, right until the moment it starts to affect them; particularly financially. Boris Johnson, for instance, said some very fine words in Glasgow, then jumped on a private plane to make a Daily Telegraph soiree at the Garrick Club. He was all for cutting carbon emissions until it affected dinner — specifically, his dinner. It is similar in sport. A group of 50 Olympians and Paralympians called on world leaders to push ahead on climate action at COP26. ‘We did our utmost this summer,’ read their statement. ‘Now, it is your chance to deliver.’ By doing their utmost, of course, they meant they did exactly what they wanted by flying to Japan to engage in a spectacle that leaves an enormous carbon footprint. We love the Olympics. But in the wider context of saving the planet, is it really necessary? Probably not. So we could equally ask Olympic rower Melissa Wilson, one of the signatories, why the emissions involved in staging a global rowing event are so essential yet, for instance, a business

trip or much-needed family holiday is not? Athletes in minority interest sports really don’t want to start pulling at the strand of what constitutes necessary travel. Green until it affects them. Manchester United have an environmental policy statement on their website that runs to a weighty 463 words. Yet on October 16 they flew to an away match at Leicester — 10 minutes in the air — due to ‘operational circumstances’. In other words, they didn’t fancy 105 miles on the M6 and M1. UEFA also have an environmental mission, with their campaign Cleaner Air, Better Game. And how has this manifested itself? With the creation of the UEFA Conference League, a competition that produces 68 per cent more tonnes of CO2 and requires 40,000 more air kilometres than the Champions League. Each Conference League matchday generates 61 tonnes of CO2. And this follows UEFA’s summer European Championship tournament that required travel across Europe to 12 host cities — including the far flung outpost of Baku — which was going to be offset by investment in renewable energy projects such as the planting of 600,000 trees. So far, one sixth of that number have gone into the ground, apparently due to Covid. Strange, because gardening is an outdoor activity and, as such, one of the few permitted during a pandemic. Maybe, as with so many green advocates, UEFA’s pledge was just more hot air.