When Sport Strains the Planet: The Hidden Footprint of the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Reading Time: 3min
With 48 national teams and 104 matches, the 2026 FIFA World Cup sets new benchmarks in global sport. At the same time, the tournament carries significant environmental consequences: according to current projections, including those from Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) and the New Weather Institute, emissions could exceed 9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which generated around 3.6 million tonnes, this highlights how strongly tournament format and location shape the overall climate footprint.
Summary
This 2026 World Cup will be the largest ever, with 48 teams across three countries, and potentially the most carbon-intensive.
Over 9 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent are expected, driven mainly by international travel, especially air transport.
Criticism is increasing as FIFA’s measures are seen as insufficient to address the tournament’s structural climate impact.
Estimation Question:
How many trees would be needed, approximately, to absorb the expected CO2 emissions of the 2026 World Cup within one year?
A) 4 million
B) 40 million
C) 400 million
D) 4 billion
The answer surprises many: using a rough estimate of about 22 kilograms of CO2 absorbed per tree per year, the total comes to roughly 409 million trees. Therefore the correct answer would be considered C) with around 400 million trees, illustrating the sheer scale of these emissions.
Why This World Cup is Different
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest in history. For the first time, 48 teams will compete instead of 32. The number of matches increases from 64 to 104, and the tournament will be spread across three countries: the United States, Canada, and Mexico. This structure makes the event not only exceptional from a sporting perspective, but also particularly demanding in terms of its climate impact.
The key difference lies in mobility. Teams, fans, media, and staff will need to travel vast distances between venues, generating emissions that go far beyond stadium operations. At this scale, it is not just infrastructure that matters, but how travel is organised and how emissions can be reduced.
Mobility as a Key Lever
A large share of emissions does not occur inside the stadiums, but through flights and other forms of transport. This makes the 2026 World Cup a clear example of how closely sport, infrastructure, and climate issues are now intertwined. While past tournaments often focused on stadium construction and energy use, global mobility is now at the centre of the debate.
Furthermore, this shift is also changing how climate protection in sport is discussed. For events of this magnitude, offsetting emissions alone is increasingly insufficient when structural emissions remain so high. What is needed are realistic measures to avoid and reduce emissions; ideally implemented from the outset, not retroactively.
FIFA’s Climate Measures
For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA is pursuing a sustainability strategy based on several key pillars:
Energy efficiency: Measures to improve energy efficiency in stadiums.
Renewable energy: Planned use of renewable energy sources.
Mobility management: Given the high emissions from air travel between host countries, strategies aim to manage and reduce travel by teams, fans, and media.
Climate targets: Beyond the tournament, FIFA has committed to reducing its emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2040.
These targets align with the UNFCCC Sports for Climate Action Framework, which FIFA signed in 2018, and are consistent with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Critisism: However, independent studies and reports argue that these measures are insufficient. Given the structural expansion to 48 teams and the resulting reliance on air travel, critics contend that the strategies do not adequately offset the tournament’s climate impact.
What This Means for the Future
The 2026 World Cup is more than a sporting event. It highlights the scale of the challenge facing global events in a world moving toward climate neutrality. In the future, success will depend on whether such events can be designed in a more climate-compatible way; perhaps through shorter travel distances, improved transport systems, more efficient infrastructure, and credible climate strategies.
For major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup, this means the carbon footprint will no longer be a side issue, but a central element of planning. Understanding the future of sport therefore also requires understanding its emissions.
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Stay ahead of the market
View the report here at Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), “The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup to Be the Most Polluting Ever”; New Weather Institute, “FIFA’s Climate Blind Spot: The Men’s World Cup in a Warming World SBTi Corporate Net-Zero v2
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