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ATHENS, GREECE
source: www.greenpeace.org/
international/news/athens-
disqualified-from-green
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/
3607910.stm
www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=
tcm:29-130206-16&type=News
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Despite Greece's promises of making the 2004 Olympics the greenest ever, the Athens Games made few, if any, concessions to environmental protection… - when Athens was still a candidate city, the official position of the Greek authorities was clear and straightforward, according to its bid the "Olympic Games are a challenge as well as an opportunity for the broad implementation of programs and actions which are environmentally friendly and in accordance to the principles of sustainable development... projects will be realised with the use of environmentally friendly technologies and materials, and this will be a prerequisite in all relevant tenders";
- the Athens 2004 Olympics were dogged by fears, right up to the last minute, that facilities would not be ready in time. Some argue that rushing to complete building work meant that the environment was not given the full attention it deserved while others point to the fact that the new infrastructure will have beneficial effects in terms of air pollution for example;
- the physical legacy of the Olympics in Athens includes brand new multipurpose sports facilities, transport infrastructure (including a new airport, an underground system, a fast ring road and gas-powered buses), the regeneration of coastal areas and the conversion of the Olympic Village into over 2,000 modern apartments;
- it was hoped that the air quality in Athens will improve markedly given that the improved road system will mean less slow, pollution-generating traffic. In addition, there was no tradition of recycling in Greece before the Games. In a bid to change that culture, a green bin/blue bin recycling system was introduced along with a major advertising campaign;
- the most controversial complaint centred on the Olympic rowing & canoeing centre at Schinias-Marathon. An European Commission official confirmed that, following the Commission's intervention, the Greek authorities had included Schinias-Marathon in their national list of proposed sites of Community interest, in line with Directive 92/43/EEC. This means the project is included in the Natura 2000 ecological network, designed to ensure that the site's wildlife value would be protected in the future management of the area;
With the exception of public transport, which has shown impressive improvements due to the Olympics, the environmental record of the Athens Olympic Games was very poor… - the official Athens 2004 website claims that the benefits of the Olympics to Greece would include 65,000 new permanent jobs, 120 kilometers of new road and a US$1.3 billion (€1.22 billion) boost in public sector revenues. In terms of the environment, it claims that 290,000 new trees and 11 million new shrubs would be planted and that there would be a 35% improvement in the quality of the environment;
- the French daily, Liberation, says it was hard pressed to locate that many new trees and shrubs, that they were planted at the last minute and that Athens has done little to shake off its 'Tsimentoupoli' [concrete jungle] tag;
- however, according to the BBC, Greenpeace, which gave Sydney 2000 ‘five out of 10’ on the environment, said it "could only give 1 out of 10 to Athens". In a damning report entitled 'How Green the Games', Greenpeace set out eight lessons that Athens had failed to learn from Sydney. These included independent auditing of all environmental information and Environmental Guidelines that "must be clear and specific benchmarks that are non-negotiable, measurable and backed up by law";
- according to Greenpeace, green energy is the sector of the most striking failure for the Athens Olympics. It was the intention of the Athens Olympic Committe that all electricity used by related premises and users during the Olympics in 2004 should be generated by renewables. The green energy produced for and distributed at the premises of the Games is close to zero. With regard to solar energy, photovoltaic cells (PV) have been excluded from the Olympic Village and other Olympic venues. The same is true for solar thermal systems, both for hot water supply as well as for solar cooling;
- one of the few environmental bright spots of Athens - the fact that Olympic sponsors, Coca Cola, McDonald's, Unilever, have now committed to using Greenfreeze is down more to Greenpeace’s campaign and pressure from online activists than the Athens Games organisers; (1)
- the WWF were also highly critical. The report, Environmental Assessment of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, evaluates the environmental wins and losses of the Athens Olympics based on the Sydney 2000 Olympics benchmark for ‘clean and green’ games. According to the report, during the seven years since Athens won the 2004 bid to host the Olympics, the organising authorities made no effort to integrate the environment in the planning mainly due to the fact that the IOC failed to enforce the environmental regulations enshrined in the Olympics charter. As a result, the Athens Organizing Committee and the Greek government failed to deliver on their commitments to abide by basic environmental standards, such as the use of solar power and recycling and waste management;
- organisers admit they failed to follow through on all their pledges, but hail great progress on public transport and in making Greeks more eco-conscious.
(1) See Sydney Games.
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