Olympics set green benchmark

Beijing 2022 pioneers climate-friendly practices from venues to transportation

China has incorporated the green and low-carbon concept throughout the preparations for and operations of the ongoing Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Many venues that served the 2008 Summer Olympics, for example, are being reused to avoid emissions that would result from building new venues.

The National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube, has been transformed into an “Ice Cube” for the curling competition, and instead of hosting basketball matches, Wukesong Arena is being used this time for ice hockey.

Compared with building new venues, the transformation of five venues used in the 2008 Games avoided emissions equivalent to 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to a report released last year by the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

“We have made full use of the Beijing Olympic venues to reduce carbon emissions from the source. At the same time, we have built low-carbon stadiums, all of which have met green building standards,” said Liu Yumin, director-general of the committee’s Planning and Construction Department, at a news conference last year.

While all venues for the Winter Games will be wholly powered by green energy, the transportation system also emphasizes a low-carbon approach, with 80 percent of vehicles being energy-saving or using clean energy.

The venues are expected to have used a total of 400 million kilowatthours of green electricity from June 2019 until the conclusion of the Paralympics in March, Liu said. That will help save 128,000 tons of standard coal and reduce CO2 emissions by 320,000 tons.

Even the flame in the Olympic cauldron, lit on Feb 4 during the opening ceremony of the Winter Games, reflects China’s green and low-carbon emphasis in hosting the Games.

The flame, which has been referred to as the smallest in Olympics history, is nonetheless expected to have a huge impact — instead of using fossil fuel, the cauldron is fueled by hydrogen with zero emissions.

Zhang Yimou, the chief director of the opening ceremony and a renowned filmmaker, said the lighting of the cauldron was his favorite part of the opening ceremony.

“It reflects that China is promoting a green and low-emission world,” he told the media.

As the world’s largest producer of hydrogen, China has also deployed more than 800 hydrogen-fueled vehicles during the Games.

Zhang Yanru is among those who drive hydrogen-fueled buses to serve the Games in Zhangjiakou, Beijing’s co-host city in Hebei province. The bus can be started even when the temperature is minus 30 C, she told Xinhua News Agency.

For the first time in Olympics history, the ongoing Games have also seen the application of one of the world’s cutting-edge ice-making technologies, making ice with carbon dioxide.

Like three other ice stadiums, the National Speed Skating Oval, downtown Beijing’s only newly built competition venue for the Games, is using CO2 as refrigerant to make ice for skating tracks.

Compared with traditional methods, the ice-making method using CO2 refrigerant can save more than 20 percent on electricity, according to the oval.

The Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games estimated that the total greenhouse gas emissions for the Beijing Winter Olympics will reach roughly 1 million tons of CO2 from 2016 to 2022, which is 0.6 million tons less than that of the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea four years ago.

The organizers of the Beijing Games have vowed to offset all carbon emissions.

While the governments of Beijing municipality and Hebei province have contributed significant amounts of carbon sink — a land or ocean mass that can absorb carbon from the atmosphere — in the forestry industry, some companies have also made contributions by sponsoring carbonneutral products, the organizing committee’s Liu said.

“With these efforts, we will make the Games carbon neutral,” he said.