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England team fights climate change en route to the World Cup

Tuesday, 08 June 2010 04:40

Image: www.freefoto.com

The England football team's flights to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup 2010 (TM), as well as to the training ground in Austria, are being offset through the UK Government's Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) for carbon offsetting. The offsets come from a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project called ‘Braco Norte IV', a small hydropower station located in the northern portion of Mato Grosso state, in Brazil. The Football Association has worked with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to identify the project. Supporting the project demonstrates that The FA takes the environmental impact of England's World Cup involvement seriously and is taking credible action to mitigate its impact. Brazil is an important country in terms of both football and climate change mitigation given that it is host to a huge carbon sink - the Amazon rainforest - as well as hosting the following FIFA World Cup in 2014.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, said: "The FA's decision to offset the team's flights shows the great importance they place on tackling climate change. The Prime Minister and I want this Government to be the greenest ever and I am thrilled to see our football team also going green for the FIFA World Cup." The UK Government's Quality Assurance Scheme provides consumers with confidence that the offsets they purchase actually do save the carbon that is stated, and The FA recommends that all England fans travelling to the FIFA World Cup who wish to offset their emissions also look for the government's Quality Assurance Mark. FA General Secretary Alex Horne said: "I know the whole team are behind these efforts to lower our carbon footprint and leave a better world for the next generation. We believe that everyone has a duty to tackle climate change. By supporting this government-approved project we can be confident that the emissions from our flights will be fairly offset."

Source: U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change