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The World Cup is one of the most cel­e­brated events in the world with mil­lions of peo­ple gath­er­ing together to rejoice the spirit of sports­man­ship an glory. The com­pe­ti­tion also serves as an impor­tant eco­nomic cat­a­lyst for the coun­try that has the honor to host it. But besides all the fan­fare, the com­pe­ti­tion can also have neg­a­tive effects on the coun­try, espe­cially on its envi­ron­ment. EU Infrastructure magazine’s graphic is based on the data from a report by the Norwegian Embassy:

While South Africa and the rest of the con­ti­nent may be pur­su­ing renew­able forms of energy, the world’s biggest sport­ing event will have any­thing but an envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fit with a report say­ing the car­bon foot­print of World Cup 2010 will be six times that of the last com­pe­ti­tion four years ago in Germany.

However, it’s not just the influx of fans fly­ing in from around the world to see the games, con­tribut­ing to the foot­print, in fact the major­ity of car­bon was caused in the build up to the tournament.

But there is hope:

However, it’s not all bad news. In a bid to cut emis­sions from cars and pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tems, South Africa has con­structed the Gautrain, a high-speed rail net­work that will trans­port fans around the country.

There are also projects to reduce fos­sil fuel con­sump­tion such as a US$10 mil­lion scheme to install solar pan­els and effi­cient lights on the streets, stop­lights and bill­boards of the six host cities.

via EU Infrastructure