In Paris, the Olympic Games are cleaning up their act

How do you produce a global sporting event, bringing millions of people to one city, in an era of global warming?

That is the test for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Organizers say they are putting the games on a climate diet. They say these Olympics will generate no more than half the greenhouse gas emissions of the recent Olympics. That means tightening our belts on everything that produces emissions from the planet: electricity, food, buildings and transportation, including the jet fuel that athletes and fans burn as they travel around the world to get there.

An event that attracts 10,500 athletes and an estimated 15 million spectators will by definition take a toll on the environment. And that has led those who love the games but hate the pollution to suggest that the Olympics should be spread around the world, in existing facilities, to eliminate the need for so much new construction and air travel. That’s why Paris is so closely watched.

More space is made for bicycles and less for cars. It does away with the huge diesel generators that are a fixture of major sporting events. It plans guest menus that are less polluting to grow and cook than typical French dishes: more plants, less steak au poivre. Solar panels will temporarily float on the Seine.

But perhaps the most important act of the organizers is what they don’t do: they don’t build. At least, not that much.

Rather than building new showpieces for the Games (which generate a lot of greenhouse gas emissions from the production of concrete and steel), the Paris Olympics are repurposing many of the city’s existing attractions, including the Grand Palais, the square that known as the Concorde and even built a swimming pool for the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.

It is not without controversy.

In a notable effort to reduce emissions, the decision to forego conventional air conditioning in the athletes’ village has raised concerns. Instead, the buildings will rely on a cooling system that uses water drawn from the subsurface. Several Olympic teams are considering bringing their own air conditioners.

Still, the hope is that experiments like these will provide a template for other Olympic Games in the future, and for other cities around the world. The few new buildings being built, including the athletes’ homes, a swimming complex and an arena, use less cement and more wood. They have solar panels and greenery on their roofs.

The new buildings must also have a life long after the Olympic Games. They are designed to be used by local residents for decades to come and, say leaders of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, to revitalize the city’s outskirts. “We have set ourselves ambitions that have never been set before for any event, let alone of this magnitude,” says Georgina Grenon, who is responsible for the games’ environmental efforts.

Critics counter that while much of what Paris is doing is commendable, especially its restrictions on new construction, truly tackling the climate crisis will require more than just cutting emissions here and there. “We need to fundamentally rethink these massive mega-events,” said Cesar Dugast, co-founder of a climate analysis group called Eclaircies. “Instead of concentrating all events in one city, consider spreading them around the world.”

‘It’s a big test’

There is a more immediate risk to the Olympics: climate change itself. Rising global temperatures are making summers dangerously hot in Paris. That has heightened concerns about the protection of athletes and fans in late July and August.

City officials say they have planted thousands of trees in recent years to temper the summer heat. They set up misting towers to spray the air. Wide parasols are being sought under which fans can wait. “We have solutions. We are preparing,” said Dan Lert, the deputy mayor responsible for preparing the city for heat. “It’s a big test.”

One key thing that sets the Paris Games apart from previous Olympics is that there is a limit on the total emissions they will produce. The goal: to generate no more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions from the 2012 Olympic Games, which were held in London.

London was chosen as the benchmark because the organizers also wanted to reduce emissions there and measured them. Estimates like these are based on standard measurements of, for example, how much carbon dioxide is produced by the amount of cement used in new buildings.

Paris organizers say they will offset these emissions by purchasing “carbon credits” to help finance emissions-reducing projects worldwide. The games’ organizers have not said which projects will fund the games and at what price. Either way, the carbon credit market can be murky, with some projects failing to deliver on their promise.

What Paris is doing shows what can be done to redesign an old city for a new global climate. It also shows where the boundaries are.

The Place de la Concorde, an 18th-century square where guillotines were once erected during the French Revolution, will be home to Olympic events such as skateboarding this summer.

The square now also features a modest metal box, designed to stimulate an electricity revolution. It contains a powerful socket connected to the national electricity grid, allowing any major event on the square to throw off the diesel buoys.

Diesel generators are the dirty secret of sporting events. Usually they are transported by truck to provide a stable power source.

The Paris Games also struck a special deal with the electricity company, which stipulates that there must be enough wind and solar energy on the grid to produce all the energy the games consume.

When it comes to emissions, transportation is another issue. Paris has already limited space for cars and made room for bicycles, and is using the games to accelerate that shift.

But the Olympics, with their huge crowds, threaten to cause problems for the way Parisians get around their city, with many making plans to flee for holiday.

Pierre Rabadan, a former professional rugby player and now deputy mayor for sport of Paris, lifted his shoulders into the wind and walked briskly out of the tram stop in front of the city’s new basketball arena at the top of Rue de la Chapelle. He pointed to a nearly finished bike lane along the road, carved into a wide boulevard dedicated to cars.

Since the election of Anne Hidalgo as mayor in 2014, Paris has built around 600 kilometers of cycle paths. About 10 percent have been named Olympistes, a play on “piste,” the French word for number.

“The problem is that we built the city around cars,” Mr. Rabadan said.

Another problem is that the city’s subway system is bursting at the seams. Trains are already overcrowded and workers are rushing to complete new extensions of two lines in time to serve the games.

To make room for Olympic visitors, the city has called on people to stay off the train or work from home.

Tarzan and the old swimming pool

The key to the organisers’ climate strategy is to build as little as possible, which is why they are using a relic from the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris: the Georges Vallerey swimming pool.

It will have a new air filtration system and a new roof that lets in light but keeps out heat and cold. Old wooden roof beams have been reused as worktops. The wooden stands, installed at least 40 years ago, are still in place. Solid plaster walls reveal the age of the pool.

“We don’t have to throw everything away or destroy everything and throw it in the trash,” Mr. Rabadan said.

The swimming pool contains history. It is the place where Johnny Weissmuller, an American swimmer, won a gold medal in 1924. He went on to play Tarzan in a series of Hollywood films, Mr. Rabadan is keen to point out.

About 95 percent of the venues that will be used for the 2024 Games will be old buildings or temporary structures. For example, several temporary pools will be built for the games, then taken apart and reinstalled in communities with a shortage of public pools.

‘A lab’

The Olympics, Ms. Grenon said, provide “a laboratory,” especially when it comes to the buildings designed from scratch.

A new aquatic center, on the edge of a highway in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, is a showpiece of Douglas fir and pine. The 5,000 square meter roof curves like a wave: the architects designed it to reduce the size of the building, requiring less energy to heat the space.

The pool is only 5 meters deep where necessary to provide more depth for diving, and shallower where not. This also saves water and energy needed to heat the water. Some of that heat will come from a nearby data center. The hall’s 5,000 seats are made of recycled plastic.

The goal, said Cécilia Gross, one of the architects, was “to do better with less.”

The largest new Olympic project is being built nearby: the 128-hectare Athletes Village complex, which will then turn into a mixed-use neighborhood for 6,000 residents. The builders say emissions are at least 30 percent lower than conventional projects of this size.

Wood also plays a leading role here. The village is a cluster of mainly wooden buildings.

Although wood comes with its own environmental costs depending on how it is grown, it is considered much more sustainable than concrete.

In the village, a small section of sidewalk is paved with oyster shells that can be watered from an underground reservoir and cool the sidewalk on hot days. One experimental building will recycle all the water. To cool the site, 9,000 trees have been planted, including local species such as oak and elm that can survive in a warmer future.

Then there is the unconventional air conditioning.

A network of pipes, using water that is first cooled underground, will cool the interior of the buildings using a technology known as a geo-exchange system. In New York City, St. Patrick’s Cathedral uses something similar, but with air instead of water. A small number of American universities are also switching to geo-exchange.

Along with shade trees, insulation and breezes from the river, builders say indoor temperatures can be kept cool enough for Parisian summers of the future. However, Games organizers say Olympic teams are still free to bring their own air conditioners.

The United States, Canada and Norway said they would. Australia And Ireland according to press reports too. The Mayor, Mrs Hidalgo, in an interview with Reutersurged teams to “trust the science.”