Going for Green

New Assembly report warns there is still much work to do if the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are to meet the environmental promises made by organisers.

Our Environment Committee report welcomes efforts to make London 2012 the most sustainable Games in recent history. The report praises London 2012’s approach to mapping its carbon footprint and welcomes the organisers’ aim to re-use or re-cycle 90 per cent of temporary materials.

However, the report warns that, environmentally, London 2012 may not be as “transformative” as originally hoped.

Watch a video about the report:

Report findings

The report describes failing to secure more electric vehicles for the Olympic fleet as a “missed opportunity”, notes it is still not clear how carbon emissions from travel to London will be reduced and says a target on renewable electricity during the staging phase of the Games is unlikely to be met.

The capital’s air quality has also not improved as hoped since 2005 which means some parts of the capital will still have harmful levels of the the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in 2012. The report therefore calls for action to ensure NO2 levels are reduced to bring them closer to EU limits by the time of the Games.

The report sets out work that is still needed to help ensure the Games live up to its environmental aspirations. These include:

• producing a plan to promote sustainable travel at the point of ticket sales to help cut carbon emissions from spectators’ journeys to the Games;
• publishing, by the end of 2011, NO2 concentration modelling for Games time, taking into account traffic and other activity related to the Games
• setting targets for the re-use of temporary materials and say how it will be monitored.

Read the report