FIFA World Cup 2022: Qatar aims for carbon-neutral tournament, to count emissions from daily flights

The FIFA World Cup 2022 host nation Qatar announced that they will keep an eye on the carbon emissions during the tournament to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2025.

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Qatar, which is hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, announced that it will include emissions from daily flights carrying spectators between Gulf emirates as part of the tournament's overall carbon footprint. Environmental experts have questioned how strict Qatar's plan to record and offset all of the event's emissions is, despite the country's promises that the month-long tournament beginning on Sunday will be "carbon neutral." When airlines like Qatar Airways and FlyDubai announced they will expand the number of daily flights between Doha and surrounding Gulf cities to transport thousands of fans spending the night outside of Qatar, there were some worries raised.

The host nation is smaller than the US state of Connecticut and does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the tournament's more than 1.2 million expected fans. Qatar's environment minister Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the emissions of the daily flights would be counted.

Speaking in Egypt at the UN climate conference, Sheikh Faleh said he was certain 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 aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030. Sheikh Faleh told delegates at the COP27 meeting that Qatar would continue "working to translate these ambitions to facts." Along with the middle easter nation other nations have also committed to reduce their carbon footprint.

It is to be noted that climate activists have been particularly very active during the COP 27summit. The activists have been blocking the runways of airports to spread awareness against the carbon footprint of aircraft. Moreover, on the eve of the COP27 U.N. climate conference in Egypt, hundreds of climate activists prevented private jets from departing Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport 

With inputs from agencies