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Brisbane 2032 to create sustainability committee
Brisbane 2032 organisers are to form a sustainability committee early this year as they focus on ensuring that the Australian city’s Olympics meets the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) target of being the first-ever “climate positive” Summer Games.
The IOC has committed to make its organisation climate positive from 2024, and all Olympic Games climate positive from 2030 onwards, with the Games in Brisbane coming just two years later.
From 2030 onwards, each Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG) is required to go beyond the current obligation of reducing and compensating carbon emissions directly related to their operations. OCOGs will be required to minimise and compensate their direct, as well as indirect, carbon emissions, and implement lasting zero-carbon solutions for the Olympic Games and beyond.
Andrew Liveris, president of 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, told ABC that one of the key considerations for the sustainability committee will be the effects of transportation, the process of carbon capture and storage, and the implementation of closed-loop water systems.
“We have to think about blueprint — not footprint and handprint… we have to have a planet-friendly orientation to all of our activities, and the Olympics are taking the lead there with the IOC, fundamentally, setting out a sustainability framework that says net positive for Brisbane. There are a swathe of technologies and programmes and tools that will have to be deployed to make that happen. Innovation ecosystem is also something I'm definitely talking to the Queensland government about."
“How we can actually attract investment in the innovation ecosystem, whether it be in recycling drones for transport, lightweight nanomaterials to make light aircraft… whether we can do recycling for making furniture from old clothing.”
Click here to find out more about the IOC’s sustainability objectives.
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