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Going for Green - Paris 2024 Raises the Sustainability Torch



France has changed its story this summer. What was set to be a season of Olympic highs and lows, of ‘higher, faster, stronger’, looks likely to be overshadowed by the fallout of the snap election called by President Macron. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has agreed to stay on temporarily through the Paris Olympics, and this steadying of the ship will offer organisers of the Games hope that at least the delivery of their programme will run smoothly. 

However, the Olympics and Paralympics taking place this year face another hurdle: the climate crisis. With summer temperatures reaching record highs, health and safety concerns for the athletes can no longer be dismissed as incidental. 


Scientists and athletes recently collaborated to raise awareness of the risks involved in elite sporting competitions traditionally held over the summer months. Looking at temperature data spanning the century between Paris’s hosting of the Olympics in 1924 and 2024, they found that on average the city is 3.1C hotter during July and August. It is becoming clear the new context for the Games is more than just an inconvenient backdrop. 


Some argue that a global athletic competition of this scale, with hundreds of thousands of visitors, can never hope to align with substantive climate action. Yet Paris has tried to set a new bar, demonstrating a commitment to global sustainability while not detracting from the ambition and spectacle of the Games. At the outset, organisers set targets to reduce emissions from the event to 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, less than half compared to the average 3.5 million tonnes from London and Rio. 

 

A key focus for the Games has been sustainable buildings, and rightly so. Buildings are at the front line of climate risks - from temperature increases to storms and flooding. They are also key to the transition to a lower-carbon future that aligns with limiting temperature rises to 1.5C. Globally, buildings accounted for over a third of total energy demand in 2022, and the buildings and construction sector is responsible for over 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

 

In our warming world, energy demand for space cooling has increased more than twice as fast as the overall energy demand in buildings over the last decade. According to the International Energy Agency, the energy consumption from space cooling, using appliances such as air conditioning units, is set to double by 2050. 

 

In order to ensure the comfort of its athletes in the Olympic village, insulation and a geothermal system for underfloor cooling has been installed in the new buildings constructed for the Games. Although much has been made of the lack of air conditioning, with teams now able to pay for their own portable units to be installed, the organisers insist the buildings will remain cool. "We designed these buildings so that they would be comfortable places to live in the summer, in 2024 and later on, and we don't need air conditioning in these buildings because we oriented the facades so that they wouldn't get too much sun during the summer, and the facades, the insulation is really efficient," Yann Krysinski, who is in charge of the delivery of venues and infrastructure at Paris 2024, told Reuters. 

 

The 2024 Olympic village will house 15,600 athletes and 9,000 para-athletes and is a prototypical eco-friendly neighbourhood designed to transition into zero-carbon commercial housing after the Games. This conversion is set to begin in 2025, marking a swift turnover from an Olympic accommodation hub to a model urban community. 

 

The buildings are designed to be as sustainable as possible, with construction that produces 50% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than standard construction. The village uses wood as a primary material for smaller structures and low-carbon concrete for taller ones. By bypassing traditional air-conditioning units in favour of geothermal heating and cooling, along with passive design elements such as thick insulation and strategic shading, Paris 2024 is setting a built environment precedent. The deployment of solar panels offsets energy requirements and will contribute to the city’s grid. 

 

Constructing zero-carbon-ready buildings is key to decarbonising the sector - not least because 60% of buildings that are expected to exist in 2050 have not yet been built. However, to reach net zero, we must also renovate existing buildings. To reach the targets set by the IEA’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, 20% of the existing building stock needs to be retrofitted by 2030. This means improving existing buildings to increase energy efficiency, making them easier to heat or cool, able to retain that heat or remain cool for longer, and replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. 

 

Europe provides a good example of the challenge and opportunity. More than 220 million buildings in Europe – or 75% of the building stock – are energy-inefficient, with many relying on fossil fuels for heating and cooling. Energy efficiency is the clearest route for reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive adopted this spring, sets out targets to reduce the energy use in buildings across the EU, and puts the EU on track to achieve a fully decarbonised building stock by 2050. 

 

Electrification is another critical way to reduce emissions. Heat pump targets set in the REPowerEU plan would translate into nearly 60 million heat pumps installed by 2030, reducing reliance on fossil fuels for heating and cooling. Buildings constructed today will be part of our communities for generations – so ensuring new buildings are green, and that existing buildings are decarbonised, is key to efforts to combat climate change. 

 

Another significant benefit of greening our existing buildings is the potential for job creation. Conservative estimates, using data available for Europe and the US, indicate low-carbon buildings could generate more than 3.5 million new jobs in those regions. In France alone, it is estimated an additional 170,000 to 250,000 jobs need to be created by 2030 to fulfil energy-efficient building renovations. 

 

And yet, even though we see pockets of action, the World Green Building Council notes that globally the gap between the energy and climate performance of the building and construction sector and the necessary pathway to achieve its decarbonisation is increasing. This is largely due to an ‘insufficient volume of building renovation and sustainable building construction, continued investment in carbon-intensive heating and cooling systems, and over-exploitation of natural resources in the building value chain’. 

 

It’s clear we are in the critical decade for putting in place the policy and regulations needed to drive action, collaborating across the value chain and deploying the solutions - many of which already exist on the market - to ensure we close the gap and follow a pathway that will deliver net-zero buildings. Earlier this year, 70 countries signed up to the Déclaration de Chaillot, galvanising action to promote the scale and speed of making ‘near-zero-emission and resilient buildings the new normal by 2030’. 

 

The innovation demonstrated at this year’s Olympics is a blueprint for the future, promising a reduction in operational emissions long after the final medals are awarded. Paris 2024 has created a space that protects athletes and future residents from an increasingly warming world while reducing the use of fossil fuels, the major cause of climate change. It is undoubtedly an ambitious template, but it illustrates what is possible. 

 

While France’s politics settle, Paris 2024’s legacy could well be its long-lasting green credentials, adding to the Games another element of human endeavour and excellence - this time, not in competition with each other, but together in the face of climate change. 

 

Associations must prioritise the greening of their workplaces and buildings to align with global sustainability goals. The Paris 2024 Olympics has demonstrated the critical importance and feasibility of constructing energy-efficient, low-carbon buildings. To achieve similar success, associations should adopt sustainable building practices, reducing their carbon footprint and promoting energy efficiency. Climate Action for Associations offers resources and guidance, including a travel policy template, to support these initiatives.  


Join Climate Action for Associations today and contribute to a more sustainable future for your organisation and the wider community. Learn more here.


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