The Royal Danish Embassy has provided funding for the Urban Environmental Management (UEM) programme to implement a massive carbon off-set project in cooperation with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs (DWEA). Funding to the tune of approximately (ZAR18-million) has been set aside to support carbon off-set projects for the 2010 Soccer World Cup tournament, in cooperation with four UEM partners, namely: the DWEA, Western Cape, Cape Town and Durban municipalities.

DWEA has undertaken a study which calculated the carbon footprint that will result from South Africa hosting the tournament. The findings estimate that total emissions will be 2 601 920 tons of CO2 equivalent, of which 67% can be attributed to international travel.

Under the carbon off-set project, DWEA will develop a system whereby revenue will be generated from international travel and associated carbon emissions, and then implement an awareness and communications campaign on climate change and carbon offsetting. In addition, they will develop a national legacy report entitled ‘Greening 2010’.

Climate action
- Western Cape
The Western Cape provincial government plans to utilise its carbon off-set budget by constructing and installing energy efficient floodlights and sub meters which will monitor the actual electricity consumption in kWh (and thus relate it to the amount of carbon mitigated) at the Philippi Soccer Stadium, which will be used as a training venue for the 2010 World Cup. The remaining budget will be used for solar water heating in low cost housing in select vulnerable communities in the province.

- Cape Town
Cape Town municipality will implement green technologies at the host venue (Green Point Stadium) as well as the monitoring and evaluation of carbon savings from 2010 carbon mitigation/offset projects.

- Durban
Durban municipality will implement green technologies at the three 2010 training venues and host stadium (Moses Mabhida stadium), as well as commission a Greening Baseline Assessments Report which will look at environmental management plans and environmental management strategies for 2010 host venues.

Taking initiative

Furthermore, DWEA has utilised the UEM programme to undertake a review of the greening status of the FIFA Soccer World Cup stadia (Green Point in Cape Town, Moses Mabhida in Durban, Athlone in Cape Town, Royal Bafokeng in Rustenburg and Peter Mokaba in Polokwane). This exercise has not only established how green the stadium designs were, but has also afforded the design teams an opportunity to enhance green aspects of their designs.

Hosting the event responsibly

The ministry’s role in the overall hosting of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament is to ensure that the event is a green event. This entails hosting the event in a responsible way by making environmentally, socially and economically responsible decisions when organising, managing or participating in the tournament. These decisions then will be channelled into long term actions for environmental sustainability.