Brazil Olympics Misses First Deadline for Clean Energy

The Brazilian government has missed a key deadline to secure a deal for environmentally friendly energy for the 2016 Rio Olympics. If no agreement is reached, Olympics organizers say they will have to use diesel generators, notorious for high emissions, to power the entire two-week event.

In its original proposal to the International Olympic Committee, organizers promoted the sustainability of Rio's existing power grid. Around 85 percent of Brazilian electricity comes from renewable sources, mainly hydro-power, according to a Rio 2016 sustainability report published last year. "Therefore, our target is to use as much grid energy as possible," wrote the organizers in the report. "Rio 2016 has been working with the Rio de Janeiro electrical utility provider to provide the base power-supply capacity and primary back-up power to our key venues with energy from the grid."