On Soccer and Sausages: The World Cup’s Inflated Carbon Budget

With the football World Cup under way in Russia,  it’s sausages that are preoccupying one group of researchers, not soccer. They want to know how many sausages are eaten at the matches and what the resulting impact on the climate will be.

The study, by nu3, a German company specialising in nutrition and food supplements, says that at each World Cup match nearly 25,000 sausages will be swallowed by spectators.

As a result of the consumption of all those sausages – and their production – more than 3,000 kg of climate-changing carbon dioxide will be produced at every game played in Russia, says the study.

FIFA, the governing body of world football, says that in total the World Cup is expected to result in the release of more than 2 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, much of it caused by the many thousands of spectators flying to Moscow and moving across the often vast distances between various footballing venues spread across Russia.

FIFA says other significant contributors to CO2 emissions include a range of other foods consumed, and the greenhouse gases produced during the construction of stadia.

It says it will offset its own CO2 emissions through supporting low-carbon projects in Russia and in other countries, and it is encouraging fans to join in a programme to reduce their own travel and other associated emissions.

“The Earth’s climate is changing due to human activity” says Fatma Samour, FIFA’s secretary general.

“We need to reduce the emissions that enter the atmosphere. FIFA takes its environmental responsibility very seriously.”

In the past FIFA has been accused of doing little to reduce the impact on the climate of the World Cup and other football tournaments.