During the tremendous excitement of the Fifa World Cup, its nail-biting and edge-of-the-seats moments, the glory and vibrance associated with each match, the impact of this event on our already strained environment is hardly on anyone’s mind. For most of us, Sports Mega Events (SME) and sustainability do not go together. This view is strengthened by the past Fifa World Cups, whose magnificence came at the expense of the environment of the host country with a significant increase in carbon emissions among other negative effects. However, SME organizers and the host country have recently started to make an effort to include sustainable development in terms of energy, water, carbon emissions, waste management in the long planning and organization that undergoes these events. Along the way, small victories have been achieved and Germany’s efforts during the Fifa World Cup of 2006 are especially commendable. It aimed to be a role model for the environment during the World Cup and started a ‘Green Goal’ initiative to manage water, energy and transportation effectively without environmental degradation during the WC. An amount of €300,000 was invested in this initiative and successful results were obtained during the WC regarding resource management.
The next WC host, Qatar is a nation heavily dependent on fossil fuels, owing its transformation from a barren peninsula to one of the richest countries to fossil fuels. Qatar brought global surprise by announcing the first ever ‘carbon neutral’ WC and giving preservation of the environment a high place in WC planning. The organizing platform, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) has declared sustainability as ‘the heart of preparation for the tournament’ and in collaboration with Fifa has laid out the first ever report of ‘Sustainable Strategies’ to be implemented to reduce environmental damage and set a high standard for future SMEs. These proposed strategies consist of solar-powered stadiums with low energy cooling systems, energy efficient LEDs, dismountable stadiums made from recycling structures of old stadiums, donation of stadium furniture to countries developing sports and an overall compact WC taking place in one city. Many consider the early development of the Doha Metro system a showcase of Qatar’s progress in its sustainability goals. It has been argued that Qatar’s devotion to hold the biggest event of the world without negative environmental impact is proof of its aim to catalyze sustainable and lasting legacy and reflects environmental consciousness of both Qatar and Fifa. On the other hand, some major environmental researchers have strongly criticised sponsors of Fifa, declaring they ‘tear the world apart under the guise of bringing people together’ (Jesse Bag) and accuse them of ‘greenwashing’ and being ‘responsible for the climate catastrophe’ we are facing.
Fifa World Cup 2022 and Qatar’s objective of sustainable legacy have a complex place in the framework of environmental humanities. Living in the Anthropocene and the loss of agency that comes with it, many ecocritics call for new thinking and intervention in environmental practices. Do Qatar’s sustainability strategies meet this criteria of new thinking or will they lead to the same environmental havoc they are trying to prevent? While Qatar’s environmentalist position has been clearly established by Qatar National Vision 2030 as well as its approach to WC, can this position be identified as ‘social ecology and eco-Marxism’ approach? This position holds the belief that scarcity of natural resources is shaped (and solved) by the power of capitalism and technological innovations and that humans are neither part of nature (monism) nor separate from it (dualism). An important aspect of this view which has been explored deeply in ecoliterature, is the concept of environmental justice, the just and equal distribution of resources for all people regardless of socio-economic status, as well as for future generations. The official report of Sustainable Strategies by SC states its mission of leaving a positive legacy through which the future generations find the environment greener with a long lasting future. This connects to the rhetoric of environmental justice by reducing environmental degradation impact for the coming generations. However, after the deaths of immigrants working on the construction of stadiums, due to unbearable heat, critics of Qatar’s policies raised the question whether Qatar extends environmental justice to the immigrants working to make its sustainability strategies a success.
A final aspect to be considered is that everything we have come to consider ‘modern’ as well as a good standard of living and the cultural productions we take pride in, all depend on petroleum. In the field of environmental humanities, this concept is referred to as ‘petroculture’ or ‘petromordernity’. These terms have a special place in environmental humanities and also connect strongly to Qatar, as it is one of the most dominant producers of fossil fuels. Qatar, itself, heavily associates its transformation into a ‘modern’ country with the discovery of its oil reserves. Qatar continually depends on fossil fuels for its energy and economy so the implications of these terms- petromodernity and petroculture-surrounding WC and sustainability rhetoric must be considered.
Hence, the case of WC 2022 and Qatar’s sustainability stance is heavily tangled with the sphere of environmental humanities. In my future blog posts, I will explore this case in detail and show how environmental humanities can give us new insight into the questions and issues raised by Qatar’s promise and effort of sustainable legacy.
Resources:
https://www.qatar2022.qa/sites/default/files/docs/FWC-2022_Sustainability-Strategy.pdf https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6407/htm
https://www.gulf-times.com/story/616949/Qatar-promises-the-first-carbon-neutral-World-Cup-in-2022
