Energy & Science
China Says the Winter Olympics Are Carbon Neutral. They Aren't
The Winter Games’ use of discredited carbon offsets undercuts its green credentials
The Big Air Shougang, venue for the freestyle skiing and snowboard events for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Photographer: Andrea Verdelli/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Beijing Winter Olympics’ claim to “carbon neutrality” is based on junk offsets that do little or nothing to counteract the emissions of the games, making the assertion little more than marketing.
“We have a shrinking window of time to substantially rein in our emissions,” said Barbara Haya, research fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. Offsets allow all kinds of organizations to “claim to be decarbonizing when they're just paying for business-as-usual,” she added.