Doha (AFP)

The World Athletics Championships in Qatar, and the three-year-old World Cup football tournament, with its air-conditioned stadiums, are raising ecologists' criticism of the environmental impact of such events in a desert country.

For a country already ranked among the worst students in the world in terms of ecological footprint, the question is far from innocuous. Because these two major sporting events should serve as a showcase for this small emirate of the Gulf, struck by a boycott of most of its neighboring countries.

To accommodate these two events, Qatar has planned to equip the eight stadiums that will host meetings of the World-2022 air conditioning. Only one will be used for the World Athletics Championships, which kicks off on Friday at Doha's Khalifa Stadium, where athletes will be racing under 22 to 25 degrees for an outdoor temperature of more than 40 degrees.

- "Not respectful of the environment" -

This technological performance, very expensive in energy, is not a priori not without collateral damage for the environment. But Qatar assures it: everything has been done to ensure that the carbon footprint of both the World Athletics Championships and the Football World Cup is neutral.

An affirmation to which does not subscribe the environmental organization Greenpeace, which insists it on the energy cost of the air conditioning of the sites, the resulting desalination, while adding to the bill the unavoidable transports by plane, the use of the plastic etc.

"Air conditioning around stadiums is not environmentally friendly, it will only add to emissions," said Greenpeace Executive Director Zeina el-Hajj.

The architect of the stadium cooling systems, engineering professor Saud Abdul Ghani, acknowledged that these sites used "a good amount of energy" and would rely on polluting emergency diesel generators in case of power failure . But he also pointed out that reducing the stadium's temperature only produces one-fifth of the emissions produced to cool similar-sized airport halls.

For this engineer, even though the eight stadiums will have open roofs, the cold air will not be wasted. "We pump the exact amount of cold air (...) - then recycle everything."

At the UN climate conference in New York, the leader of Qatar, Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, assured that the country "committed to organizing" a World Cup respectful of the environment and the first carbon neutral tournament "through the use of solar energy in stadiums and the use of energy-efficient cooling, lighting and water systems".

- Solar energy -

But there. According to Zeina el-Hadj, "no" eight-stage cooling system is "currently" powered by solar energy. Khalifa Stadium is not yet powered by this energy.

According to Qatari leaders, it is only a matter of time.

World Cup 2022 general manager Nasser al-Khater says the country is committed to "making solar power plants in Qatar before the World Cup".

"Through the use of extremely sustainable lighting systems and water systems, we have considered generating electricity for these stages," he said. He also plans to plant thousands of trees to offset emissions.

Paradoxically, the use of solar panels in Qatar does not necessarily seem to be the miracle solution.

"The solar panels are struggling to operate at high temperatures because it reduces their efficiency, not to mention the accumulation of dust," said Mohammed Ayoub, director of research at the Institute for Research on Medicine. environment and energy of Qatar.

So maybe the problem is not really solved yet.

© 2019 AFP