Neus Escobar

International entertainment events have a very high carbon footprint. The majority of this stems from emissions caused by spectators’ travel, which account for 82 per cent of the emissions from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 97 per cent of those from Coldplay’s 2024 European tour, according to a study published in Communications Sustainability which analyses the environmental impact of both mega-events. The researchers propose that organisers should bear part of the carbon costs by rewarding fans with discounts for choosing more environmentally friendly modes of transport to attend the events.

A team from the UK and the Netherlands has estimated the environmental cost attributed to the actions of the top 10% of spenders—generally the wealthiest—both globally and in the richest country on each continent. Globally, they are responsible for damages worth between US$1.7 trillion and US$5.7 trillion. These figures exceed the funding needed to meet the 2035 climate finance target agreed upon at COP30—US$993 billion—and to cover the funding needed to halt biodiversity loss by 2030—US$657 billion. The study is published in Communications Sustainability, a journal of the Nature group. 

Private flights are used by approximately 0.003 % of the world's population, but the CO₂ emissions they released in 2023 were equivalent to 1.8 % of those of all commercial aviation. These are the conclusions of a study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, which estimates that emissions from private flights increased by 46 % between 2019 and 2023. Almost half of them covered a distance of less than 500 kilometers.