The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be an environmental disaster of historic proportions. Scientists project the tournament will generate approximately 9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, nearly double the historical average for the event and far exceeding the 2022 Qatar edition that was itself a climate catastrophe.
The math is brutal. Air travel alone will account for roughly 7.7 million tons of CO2, more than four times higher than the average from tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. In worst-case scenarios, aviation emissions could balloon to 13.7 million tons.
FIFA made choices that guaranteed this outcome. The organization expanded the tournament from 32 to 48 competing teams and selected three host nations spanning an enormous geographic footprint: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The distances involved make lower-carbon travel options essentially impractical for most fans and teams.
The consequences are already visible in team logistics. Bosnia and Herzegovina will travel more than 5,000 kilometers between Toronto, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with their training camp adding hundreds more kilometers from Salt Lake City. Algeria faces roughly 4,800 kilometers journeying from Kansas City to San Francisco and back. Czechia starts in Guadalajara before heading to Atlanta and then Mexico City, accumulating over 4,500 kilometers. These aren't isolated examples but the new normal under FIFA's sprawling format.
The environmental hypocrisy runs deeper still. FIFA in December 2024 signed a four-year sponsorship partnership with Aramco, the Saudi state-owned energy giant and the largest corporate greenhouse gas emitter on earth, responsible for more than 4 percent of all global emissions since 1965. More than 100 professional female footballers, including major stars, signed a letter condemning the deal. Canada national team captain Jessie Fleming captured the absurdity: "Aramco is one of the biggest polluters of the planet we all call home. In taking Aramco's sponsorship, FIFA is choosing money over women's safety and the safety of the planet."
This mirrors FIFA's behavior surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. President Gianni Infantino urged fans to "raise FIFA's green card for the planet" by posting online about their environmental commitments. Behind the rhetoric, Qatar 2022 required over 1,000 daily inbound and outbound flights, deployed energy-intensive desalination systems, and shipped grass seeds from North America on climate-controlled aircraft. Carbon-offset schemes propped up the false "carbon neutral" claim.
Player and public safety faces direct threats from climate change itself. The National Weather Service warns that every region of the US will experience temperatures exceeding historical averages during the tournament's two-month window. Analysis shows 26 matches will be played when wet bulb globe temperature, which factors in air temperature, direct sunlight, humidity, and wind speed, reaches or exceeds 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Fifpro, the global players' union, mandates cooling breaks at that threshold.
An academic study found that 14 of 16 host cities will likely experience average WBGTs exceeding 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in June and July. Fifpro has stated that a 28-degree WBGT reading may warrant match suspension entirely. Three cities most exposed to dangerous heat,Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta,have air-conditioned stadiums, but powering that cooling ironically worsens the carbon emissions problem.
Dr. Madeleine Orr of the University of Toronto, one of the study's authors, highlighted the disconnect: "What is perhaps most absurd to me is the lack of commonsense preparations by event organizers to keep people safe in extreme weather conditions. Hot and humid weather is predictable in North American summers. So are wildfire smoke in the West and hurricane-force winds driving big storms in the East." She noted that protections extend only to athletes on the field, with "basically no consideration for fans, staff, the media and volunteers working in the stands or on the streets."
FIFA has announced limited measures. Evening kickoff times in hotter cities will shift matches away from peak heat hours. Each half will include a three-minute "hydration break" regardless of conditions. In typical fashion, FIFA permitted television broadcasters to fill two minutes and 10 seconds of each break with commercials, provided they respect specific cutaway and return windows.
Calling this outcome greenwashing understates the problem. Scholars argue the 2026 World Cup qualifies as the deadliest sporting event in history given the premature deaths linked to increased greenhouse gas emissions. For context, FIFA's tournament will produce 9 million tons of CO2 while the entire US generated 5.9 billion tons in 2025 alone, yet allowing FIFA to willfully trash the environment without consequence only normalizes corporate indifference to climate destruction.
Author James Rodriguez: "FIFA named the climate problem in its promotional materials but refuses to genuinely address it,this isn't a green card for the planet, it's a middle finger to everyone living on it."
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