Greenwashing the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralymic Games w/ Dr Binoy Kampmark: July 27, 2021

With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to pose a significant health risk to people right across the world, the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games has been controversial. However, another controversial issue that goes hand in hand with the Games every year is greenwashing. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made strong commitments to ensuring the Games are working towards a carbon neutral (or even carbon positive) goal using their Sustainability Strategy, which was issued in 2017. But Dr Binoy Kampmark, a senior lecturer in the school of Global Urban Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, says that the greenness of the Games is an act of theatre.

News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston talks to Dr Kampmark about this issue of greenwashing the Olympics, how green the 2020 Games truly are and what it would take to make this major sporting event a leader in sustainablity.