UN hails World Cup's 'Green Goal' project

NAIROBI: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Sunday welcomed the success of the 'Green Goal' project in making the 2006 World Cup in Germany environmentally-friendly, notably by slashing carbon emissions.

The Nairobi-based UNEP, which supported the project formulated by the event's Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the German environment ministry said the pionering initiative had met its paramount objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport and electricity generation during the month-long tournament.

The elimination of mountains of waste normally associated with large scale public events as well as the use of rainwater for pitches had also been realised, the programme said in a statement.

"Environmental considerations have been making a first, very welcome appearance at a World Cup. I hope and am confident that the ideas and strategies put in place for this tournament can be adapted and developed for other mass audience events from football to pop concerts." said UNEP executive director Achim Steiner in the statement.

Steiner's predecessor and Green Goal ambassador, Klaus Toepfer, is less elated but equally optimistic.

"We will have to wait until the final whistle to fully gauge the Green Goal," Toepfer said in the statement.

"But the various tactics from those aimed at encouraging public transport to the one designed to minimize waste, appear to be hitting the net. The only losers so far appear to be car parks with some only half or semi full," he added.

According to preliminary data, 55 percent of spectators on average have been using public transport to travel to and from the stadiums in a bid to reduce the gas emissions from their cars.

UNEP has been on the frontline to press for the implementation of UN's global warming pact, the Kyoto Protocol, which would see a reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases by a billion tonnes by the end of 2012.

The chief target of the protocol -- a complex environmental treaty that was agreed in 1997 -- is to get industrial countries to trim their pollution of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases blamed for driving dangerous climate change.