France have changed their game this summer. What was intended to be an Olympic season of ups and downs, of “higher, faster, stronger”, is most likely overshadowed by the fallout from the snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has agreed to temporarily remain at the workplace until the Paris Olympics, and this stabilization of shipping will give the Games organizers hope that at least the realization of their program will go smoothly.
But this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games face another hurdle: the climate crisis. As summer temperatures reach record highs, considerations about athletes’ fitness and protection can no longer be incidental.
Scientists and athletes have recently collaborated to raise awareness about the dangers associated with elite sporting competitions that historically take place in the summer months. Looking at temperature knowledge spanning the century between when Paris hosted the Olympic Games in 1924 and 2024, they found that, on average, the city was 3. 1 degrees Celsius (37. 58 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer in July and August. It is clear that the new context of the Games is much more than just an inconvenient backdrop.
Some argue that a global sports festival of this scale, with thousands of visitors, can never hope to align with truly extensive climate action. Still, Paris has tried to set a new standard, demonstrating its commitment to sustainable progress on a global scale. detracting from the ambition and spectacle of the Games. From the outset, organisers had set targets to reduce the event’s emissions to 1. 6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, less than part of the 3. 5 million tonnes average in London and Rio.
Sustainable structures were at the center of the Games, and rightly so. Buildings are on the front lines of climate risks, from emerging temperatures to storms and flooding. They are also in the transition to a low-carbon future, which aligns with temperature restriction. Globally, structures accounted for more than a third of total energy demand in 2022 and the structures and structures sector is responsible for more than 20% of global greenhouse fuel emissions.
In a warming world, the demand for energy for space cooling has increased more than twice as fast as the total energy demand for construction over the past decade. According to the International Energy Agency, energy consumption similar to that of space cooling, devices such as air conditioners, is expected to double by 2050.
To ensure the comfort of its athletes in the Olympic Village, insulation and a geothermal underfloor cooling formula were installed in the new buildings built for the Games. Although there has been a lot of talk about the lack of air conditioning, groups must now pay for the installation of their own port units, organizers insist that the buildings will be kept cool.
“We have designed those buildings in such a way that they are comfortable places to live in the summer, in 2024 and beyond, and we do not want air conditioning in those buildings because we have oriented the facades in such a way that they do not get much sun. During the summer and in the facades, the insulation is effective,” Yann Krysinski, responsible for the delivery of the Paris 2024 land and infrastructure, told Reuters.
The 2024 Olympic Village will host 15,600 athletes and 9,000 para-athletes and is a prototype green community designed to transition to carbon-free advertising housing after the Games. This conversion is expected to begin in 2025, marking the immediate transition from an Olympic accommodation center to an urban-style community.
The buildings are designed to be as sustainable as possible, with structures generating 50% less greenhouse fuel emissions than popular structures. The town uses wood as the main curtain for smaller structures and low-carbon concrete for larger ones. Bypassing classic air conditioning In favor of geothermal heating and cooling, as well as passive design elements such as thick insulation and strategic shading, Paris 2024 sets a precedent for the built environment. The deployment of solar panels counteracts energy desires and will contribute to the city’s grid. .
Building buildings with 0 carbon emissions is key to decarbonizing the sector, among other things because 60% of the buildings expected to exist in 2050 have not yet been built. However, reaching net 0 also requires renovating existing buildings. To meet the targets set through the IEA’s 2050 net 0 emissions scenario, 20% of existing building inventory must be renovated by 2030. This means upgrading existing buildings to increase energy efficiency, making them less difficult to heat or cool, to keep them hot or cold for longer. and replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.
Europe sets a smart example of the challenge and the opportunity. More than 220 million buildings in Europe, or 75% of the building stock, are energy inefficient and many of them rely on fossil fuels for heating and cooling. The energy power is the maximum apparent. The Energy Efficiency of Buildings Directive, adopted this spring, sets targets to reduce energy consumption in buildings across the EU and puts the EU on track towards a fully decarbonised building stock by 2050.
Electrification is another critical way to reduce emissions. The heat pump targets set out in the REPowerEU plan would result in almost 60 million heat pumps installed by 2030, reducing reliance on fossil fuels for heating and cooling. The buildings built today will be a component of our communities for generations. It is imperative to ensure that new buildings are green and that existing buildings are decarbonized to fight climate change.
Another important advantage of greening our existing structures is the possibility of creating projects. Conservative estimates, available for Europe and the United States, suggest that low-carbon structures could generate more than 3. 5 million new projects in those regions. In France alone, it is estimated that it will be necessary to create between 170,000 and 250,000 additional projects until 2030 to carry out energy-efficient building renovations.
And yet, while we see a range of measures, the World Green Building Council notes that, globally, the gap between the energy and climate functionality of the building and building sector and the path needed to achieve its decarbonization is widening. This is largely due to “an inadequate volume of sustainable structure and structure renovations, continued investments in carbon-intensive heating and cooling systems, and the overexploitation of natural resources in the source chain. “price of the structure.
It is clear that we are in a critical decade to implement policies and regulations that drive action, collaborate along the price chain and deploy responses (many of which already exist in the market) to ensure we close the hole and continue. a path to help you achieve net-zero emissions buildings. Earlier this year, 70 countries signed the Chaillot Declaration, driving action to promote scale and speed to make “resilient, near-zero emissions buildings the new norm through 2030. ”
The innovation demonstrated at this year’s Olympic Games is a long-term trend and promises relief from operational emissions long after the final medals are awarded. Paris 2024 has created a space that protects athletes and future citizens from a hot world, while reducing the use of fossil fuels, one of the main causes of climate change. This is certainly an ambitious style, but it illustrates what is possible.
As French politics takes hold, the legacy of Paris 2024 could well become its enduring environmental benchmark, adding to the Games some other detail of human effort and excellence, this time without competing against them. with others, but combined in the face of climate change.
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