A legal stand-off between Vredefort Dome community members and the government has taken hold after the latter insisted that the area would be registered as a World Heritage site before the start of the 2010 World Cup. Volksblad reports that deputy DG in the Department of Environmental Affairs, Fundisile Mkenti, told landowners in the dome that the proclamation was imminent. Unesco identified the dome as a heritage site in 2005. Members of the community are split over whether development should be allowed.
South Africa is trying to ’green’ the 2010 World Cup, but local efforts are struggling to balance out the enormous carbon emissions caused by holding the tournament at the tip of the continent. Natural ventilation, rain water capture, energy efficiency: the new stadiums built for Africa’s first World Cup incorporate top-notch environmental standards. According to a report on the IoL site, the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban have also planted thousands of trees to capture the carbon dioxide blamed for global warming.
PE faces water ’crisis’ ahead of WC kick-off – 21/02/2010
The shortage of clean drinking water in Nelson Mandela Bay is threatening to adversely affect the 2010 World Cup in the region. Sunday World reports that the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality has admitted it could run out of water before the 2010 World Cup, saying it is preparing a ’crisis plan’ to address the problem. The plan is to be finalised in March, when details will be revealed. This admission comes as the critical water shortage worsens by the day, with the municipality being blamed for failing to implement restrictions agreed on seven months ago.
A total of 500 rubbish bins with a soccer theme are currently being placed around the Cape Town airport as part of a recycling project to promote the 2010 World Cup tournament’s Green Goal campaign. FIN24 reports that another 700 will subsequently be installed at the airports of other host cities. The aim is to eventually have 100 000 of these bins throughout the country within a couple of years. The soccer bins, in the colours of the national flag (with lids resembling half a soccer ball), will help people separate their waste from the outset and facilitate recycling.
FIFA will soon be able to buy green electricity, produced by the Darling Wind Farm, for the World Cup. The Cape Times reports that this wind energy could also be used to illuminate Table Mountain and other city landmarks. Mayoral committee member for utility services Clive Justus said the power generated by the wind farm equated to half of the Civic Centre’s electricity consumption. However, the city had agreed to buy the electricity so that the Darling Wind Farm project could be sustained. The council plans to get 10% of its energy from renewable sources by 2010, said Justus.
New York-listed renewable energy company Yingli Green Energy has become the first-ever renewable energy company to be a sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, as well as being the first Chinese company to seal a global sponsorship deal with the football governing body, notes an Engineering News report. ’I am extremely pleased that Yingli has chosen to support 20 centres for 2010, the official campaign of the 2010 World Cup, by providing solar panels and committing to our efforts to create a better environment, as embodied by our "Green Goal" concept,’ said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
WC carbon footprint under the spotlight – 22/01/2010
With an estimated carbon footprint of 2 753 250 t of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e), the 2010 World Cup will have the largest carbon footprint of any major international sporting event, and will need major interventions to achieve the ambition of making it an event with a positive environmental legacy. Engineering News reports that the massive footprint is largely due to the significant distance that many international spectators will need to travel to get to South Africa. Because of its location, almost all international visitors will need to fly to the country.
Johannesburg has been landscaping pavements and traffic islands to
beautify the city ahead of the expected influx of tourists for the
2010 World Cup in June, notes a report on the IoL site. Designed by landscaper Jan du Plessis, the roadside gardens are made up of various pebbles and low-maintenance plants such as succulents and aloes. In all, 25 sites across Joburg have been included in the beautification upgrades, a public-private partnership between the City and ADreach, the outdoor media company. These roadside gardens were designed with the aim of welcoming tourists through impressive gateways, which reflect a clean and successful 21st century, noted Jacqui Khourie, the public relations officer for ADreach.
The Joule electric car, created by local company Optimal Energy, will use the 2010 Soccer World Cup as a showcase event to gain visibility and garner international interest. ’We are currently producing a fleet of cars at Hi-Tech Automotive in Port Elizabeth,’ says Optimal Energy CEO Kobus Meiring. ’This will be a marketing fleet and will be used mainly to ensure high visibility during the 2010 World Cup.’ Meiring adds that the fleet will be used to bridge the gap to series production, notes a News Today report. The company is set to start production toward the end of 2012, with plans to ramp up rapidly to 50 000 cars a year, according to Meiring. Around 5% to 10% of these will go to the local market, with the rest earmarked for the UK and EU.
World Cup 2010: Its Greenness in Question - 13/01/2010
According to the South African authorities, there is not much to worry about. As Blessing Manale, chief director of planning and coordination and information for the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said last year, "The games will not begin if they are not green. We acknowledge that the idea of green games began in Oslo in 1994. We are going to make 2010 the greenest World Cup yet." Various World Cup projects with an environmental twist have been kick-started over the past years. In Johannesburg, for instance, tens of thousands of indigenous trees will be planted in the township of Soweto. This project—known as Johannesburg’s biggest greening revolution—will cost the municipality 760,000 euro and aims to beautify South Africa’s largest township with 300,000 trees.
Street beautification sites selected for upgrade ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup are aimed at presenting the best face of Johannesburg to tourists visiting our City next year. So says Brent Herbert, Joint CEO of The ADreach Group - the outdoor media company responsible for implementation of the upgrades that have been completed at 25 sites across the City of Johannesburg. The street upgrade initiative forms part of the City of Johannesburg’s Gateway Pole and Beautification Project. This public private partnership between ADreach and City Parks aims to welcome 2010 guests through Gateways that reflect a clean, successful 21st Century city.
PUMA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) were joined on Thursday by the Indomitable Lions - Cameroon’s national football team - with team captain Samuel Eto’o, to announce a strategic partnership to support biodiversity worldwide and specific initiatives in Africa. The ’Play for Life’ partnership will support the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity by raising awareness about habitat and species conservation among football fans and the general public during worldwide football events, including the Orange Cup of African Nations in Angola later this month and international friendly games leading up to the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
SA wildlife puts a humorous spin on 2010 - 20/12/2009
From a leopard cub clutching a soccer ball to zebras crossing a soccer pitch, a renowned South African wildlife artist has humorously married wildlife and football ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Durban artist Ian van Zyl, whose paintings have been auctioned at Christie’s in London, was commissioned by Fifa to produce works for a World Cup-related fine art collection. Van Zyl is one of several African artists whose works have been included in the 2010 African Fine Art Collection, which is endorsed by Fifa for the production of fine art and art collectables. Van Zyl, whose works hang in many private collections around the world, produced African Game, a set of 12 paintings which will go on display for sale during the World Cup.
South Africa’s 2010 LOC, together with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the event host cities, has launched the national ’greening 2010’ framework, which aims at reducing the environmental footprint of the sporting spectacular. Engineering News reports that participants unveiled the Green Goal logo and signed a pledge committing their support to the Green Goal initiatives, which focus on the environmental aspects of waste, energy, transport, water, biodiversity, and responsible tourism before and during the event. ’Our focus for this World Cup is that it must raise awareness and substantially change matters relating to the environment. If the World Cup can strengthen our ability to deal with this challenge, it will be a move forward,’ said LOC CE Danny Jordaan.
The 2010 World Cup will pollute the planet nine times more than the 2006 edition in Germany because of teams’ and fans’ long flights, notes a report on the iafrica.com site. ’We expect that the global footprint of the South African World Cup will be nine times higher than in Germany,’ said Dorah Nteo, the director of South Africa’s governmental climate agency DEAT. The lion’s share of the pollution, 85%, was expected to come from air transport to South Africa, but also from flights crisscrossing the country to the event’s various sites. The southern tip of Africa is far from the main concentration of football fans in Europe and the Americas, and will therefore require flights of thousands of kilometres (miles).
Football to footprints: World Cup’s carbon impact – 29/11/2009
Africa’s first Soccer World Cup will generate 2,75-million tonnes of carbon emissions, one of the biggest environmental impacts of any sporting event in history, a study has found. The finals in South Africa next year are expected to have a carbon footprint eight times that of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, even before long-haul international travel is taken into account. The Mail and Guardian reports that the main reasons for the discrepancy are the vast distances between South Africa’s host cities and the lack of a green transport infrastructure.
The 2010 Local Organising Committee (OC), together with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the event host cities, on Thursday launched the national ’greening 2010’ framework, which aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the sporting spectacular. Engineering News reports that participants unveiled the ’green goal’ logo, and signed a pledge committing to their support of the green goal initiatives, which focused on the environmental aspects of waste, energy, transport, water, biodiversity, and responsible tourism before and during the event.
The Royal Danish Embassy has provided funding for the Urban Environmental Management (UEM) programme to implement a massive carbon off-set project in cooperation with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs (DWEA), notes a 25 Degrees report. Funding to the tune of approximately R18-million has been set aside to support carbon off-set projects for the 2010 World Cup, in cooperation with four UEM partners, namely: the DWEA, Western Cape, Cape Town and Durban municipalities. Under the project, DWEA will develop a system whereby revenue will be generated from international travel and associated carbon emissions, and then implement an awareness and communications campaign on climate change and carbon offsetting.
The community of rural Nkomazi area bordering Mozambique and Swaziland came out in numbers to take part in a cleaning campaign planned for the whole week. Led by the Nkomazi municipality’s mayor Johan Mavuso, a group of people including prisoners on parol, pupils, councillors, the business community, traditional leaders and community members cleaned most parts of the area. The Sowetan reports that municipality spokesperson Cyril Ripinga said the campaign aims to make people aware that with the 2010 World Cup nearing, it was necessary for ’us to be ready’. ’We want all visitors who will be coming to this area from all over the world to find us clean,’ said Ripinga.
The second Karoo conference, focusing on Creative Tourism in the Karoo, will take place at De Stijl Hotel Gariep Dam on 5-6 November 2009. Its challenge is to develop and market a signature ’Karoo brand,’ as a key desert tourism destination in the world. Bizcommunity.com reports that its aim is to forge new partnerships in the Karoo, Kalahari and Namaqualand, part of the Arid Areas programme, which focuses on socio-economic development in the underdeveloped hinterland of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and promote tourism. The diversity, sophistication and quality of accommodation and activities in the Karoo offer exceptional value, which holds major implications for the 2010 World Cup. Soccer fans will need to travel by road through the Karoo, Kalahari and Namaqualand. The conference hosts have therefore highlighted six major Karoo Highways, which need to be marketed for this keynote event.
Carbon emissions from next year’s soccer World Cup are expected to soar from the 2006 benchmark set by Germany, but host South Africa said it would invest in carbon credits to mitigate the impact. Engineering News reports that emissions accelerate global warming and major sports events, including the Olympics and World Cup, have since the early 1990s been designed to minimise the impact on the environment. ’The 2010 World Cup will have the largest carbon footprint of any major event with a goal to be climate neutral,’ said South Africa’s Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica. Air travel to visit the long-haul destination is expected to make up 67% of the country’s total carbon emissions during the one-month event next year, with up to 500 000 foreign tourists expected.
Thousands of indigenous trees will be planted in three municipalities in the province as part of an initiative by the Eastern Cape Tourism Board (ECTB) to make the 2010 World Cup the ’greenest World Cup yet’. The Daily Dispatch reports that the tourism board issued a tender notice this week calling for companies to supply and plant a total of 4 500 indigenous trees in Makana (Grahamstown), Ndlambe (Port Alfred) and Buffalo City municipalities. ECTB 2010 project secretary Thando Matshikiza said sites have already been identified and all that was left was for them to appoint a service provider. ’This is to beautify the cities. It’s happening in Ndlambe, Makana and Buffalo City. We want to green these cities for 2010. We decided that it’s something that we must do,’ said Matshikiza.
An Eco-Tourism Park at the Tshikuyu Village in Limpopo will be completed in January 2010 just in time for the thousands of soccer fans who will descend on the country for the biggest soccer spectacle ever. The R30 million project, which started in 2007, will play a vital role in providing accommodation to tourists who will be visiting the Kruger National Park during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and beyond. The park will consist of modern and stylish chalets, an administration block, a conference hall, swimming pools, a restaurant, ladies bar and a curio shop.
The water crisis in Southern Cape municipalities has reached such crisis proportions that unless ’radical steps’ are taken, the consequences for the people and economy of the district will be ’incalculable’, and could lead to there being ’no water’ during the first half of next year, says a report. According to a report on the IoL site, it was estimated that at least R100 million was needed to respond to the crisis in George, Knysna and Mossel Bay alone. ’The consequences for the people and economy of the district (eg the 2010 World Cup) are incalculable should such a situation occur,’ said Local Government MEC Anton Bredell.
CT releases Green Goal progress report – 25/09/2009
Last week, the City of Cape Town launched the Green Goal progress report, a document that highlights the effort made by government to ensure that the 2010 World Cup is an environ-mentally responsible event and leaves a positive environmental legacy in the region. Engineering News reports that the progress report documents the implementation and progress of the 2010 Green Goal programme following the launch of the Green Goal Action Plan last year. The report indicates that a total of 41 projects have been identified by the Host City Green Goal Action Plan across nine target areas to achieve the aims of the 2010 greening programme.
The carbon footprint of the 2010 World Cup will be eight times that of Germany’s in 2006. South Africa’s location as a long-distance destination contributes largely to the situation, notes a report on the News24 site. An appeal had thus been made to FIFA and its partners to make a contribution to reducing the spectacle’s carbon footprint as it did in Germany, reported Western Cape premier Helen Zille. At the announcement of a progress report on Cape Town’s Green Goal Action Plan for the tournament she pointed out that the carbon emissions would moreover affect the entire globe. Steps need to be taken to involve everybody who has a stake in 2010 in the Green Goal Action Plan and its objectives.
Soccer fans and spectators may have to drink beer out of reusable cups and eat hotdogs off serviettes to help save the environment next year. The Cape Argus reports that the province’s 2010 Green Goal team has suggested that food and beverage sellers at the stadium minimise food packaging and reuse beer cups during matches. Goal manager Lorraine Gerrans said this was just one of many suggestions to the LOC on ways to avoid waste during the event. She said reusable beer cups were used at stadiums in Germany in 2006, and worked ’extremely well’ in the fan parks and public viewing areas there. ’Our aim is to reduce waste during the World Cup and to keep the event and the city as green as possible,’ said Gerrans.
The City of Joburg, through its utility Pikitup, has embarked on a R20m campaign to clean up the city for the 2010 World Cup, notes a Security.co.za report. ’Enough is enough.’ This was the message from Pikitup managing director Zami Nkosi as he launched the campaign against illegal dumping at the Clean City Summit. The city has identified 1 950 illegal dumping spots throughout the city and will use an integrated communication approach, as well as law enforcement, to achieve this.
An indigenous milkwood tree was planted in the grounds of the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to celebrate national Arbor Week and the upcoming 2010 World Cup. The Weekend Post reports that the event was hosted by the provincial agriculture, forestry and fisheries department. Guest of honour was Duran Francis, captain of PE-based first division side Bay United. Francis said he was proud to be involved in the Arbor Day event. ’Umlilo team members are role models for many people so, hopefully, my involvement can be positive in terms of environmental education and the need to plant and protect trees,’ he added.
Tourism establishments wanting to earn the lucrative ’green dollar’ will soon have to meet stringent requirements if they wish to obtain an official stamp of approval. Proprty24 reports that South Africa’s Department of Tourism is developing accreditation standards for environmental certification schemes, a number of which have emerged in recent years. With the accommodation sector fingered as a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions ahead of the 2010 World Cup, the standards could be seen as playing a potential role in reducing emissions and thus ’greening’ the event.
