FEATURE: Paris Olympics to lean heavily on offsets, clean power to hit carbon targets

The 2024 Paris Olympics is set to rely on carbon offsets to achieve a goal of halving the event's carbon footprint compared with previous editions.

The Paris Games, set to run from July 26 to Aug. 11, will also be powered by renewable assets and not diesel generators, as energy is set to account for less than 5% of its total carbon emissions budget, with biopropane fueling the Olympics flame.

The organizers of the sporting event have already bought 1,472,550 mtCO2 of carbon credits from 13 different projects, data from the 2024 Olympics showed.

The bulk of these are from projects in Africa, ranging from cookstoves, solar power, mangrove restoration, forestry and clean water access. Four are forestry projects in France registered under the Label Bas Carbone -- or Low Carbon Label -- while the remaining nine are a mix of offsets endorsed by Gold Standard and Verra's Verified Carbon Standard.

This compares with the Tokyo Olympics, which used 4.38 million mtCO2e in offsets under domestic Japanese emissions trading programs to achieve its climate commitments.

Halve emissions

Paris 2024's goal to halve its carbon footprint -- across scope 1, 2 and 3 categories -- is benchmarked against recent editions of the Games, which are assumed to have caused 3.5 million mtCO2e of emissions. This excludes Tokyo 2020, held without spectators, so with greatly reduced aviation emissions.

The estimated carbon footprint of the Paris 2024 Games is 1.58 million mtCO2e, even lower than the target of 1.75 million mtCO2e, the organizers said.

The huge volume of offset buying by the Paris Games comes at a time of intense scrutiny for the voluntary carbon market.

Criticism of the market's integrity has led to reduced supply-side engagement and falling credit values.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed current year nature-based avoidance carbon credits at $4/mtCO2e July 18, up from a record low of $2.70/mtCO2e in mid-February.

Ahead of 2021's COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, a high-water mark for VCM values, the credits had been trading around $13/mtCO2e.

Green power

With 15,000 athletes and 15 million spectators expected to travel to Paris during the two-week Games, travel will be a key source of emissions. Construction, meanwhile, has already accounted for sizeable emissions with many new facilities required.

"In order to limit carbon emissions linked to new construction sites, 95% of the infrastructure being used for the Paris 2024 Games is either temporary or already in existence," the Games' organizers said.

All venues meanwhile are connected to the grid to limit the use of diesel generators, they added.

France's power mix is already low in carbon intensity, but electricity for the Olympics will be further decarbonized by a solar roof-top on the Games' swimming pool, France's biggest urban solar PV array.

State power company EDF meanwhile is to supply Paris 2024 with guarantees of origin (GOs) certifying that green power equal to the Games' consumption has been injected into the grid from six wind farms and two solar farms in France.

"After the Paris 2024 Games, for the first time, EDF will be able to supply 100% renewable electricity by means of GOs for temporary connections. This is a large step towards the decarbonization of special events," EDF's commercial director for the Ile-de-France region, Birgit Fratzke-Weiss, said in an email to Commodity Insights.

A blockchain-based system, Trackelec, made it possible to match the Games' power use on an hourly basis, Fratzke-Weiss added.

Platts assessed EU wind GOs for 2025 at Eur2.23/MWh on July 22.

Biopropane torch

The Paris Games' opening ceremony on July 26 is to climax with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.

The Olympic flame is set to burn in the Tuileries Garden in front of the Louvre Museum for the duration of the Games.

Over the past 10 weeks, biopropane has fueled the Olympic Torch relay across France, with the torch itself made of recycled steel renewably produced in France, the Paris 2024 organizing committee said.

Biopropane is propane produced from renewable feedstocks, such as plant and vegetable waste.

Most biopropane is produced as a byproduct of the hydrogenated vegetable oil process, where vegetable oils are treated with hydrogen to produce renewable diesel or sustainable aviation fuel.

Platts assessed NWE biopropane at $1,399/mt on July 16 -- a premium of over $800/mt premium to the CIF NWE large cargo assessment.

The carbon footprint of the Torch Relay that started May 8 in Marseille is estimated between 2% and 4% of the overall carbon footprint of the Games, according to Paris 2024.

Paris Olympics' carbon project list