NOC Israel – Planting Hope and Protecting the Environment
Team Israel for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Residents of Sderot Plant Together a New Climate Forest in the City.
Over the past year, the Olympic Committee of Israel (NOC) has been leading a national initiative among sports federations, athletes, and fans, to promote sustainability in sports in Israel and to prepare for adapting to the climate crisis.
As part of this effort, the NOC signed the United Nations’ “Sports for Climate Action” agreement, mapped the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its activities, and decided to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of the Olympic delegation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by planting a climate forest in the city of Sderot. Planting of the tress will be carried out by Olympic athletes together with the local community, in a joint project of the NOC, the Sderot Municipality, the Ashkelon Coastal Environmental Unit, the Good Energy Initiative NGO, and the Jewish National Fund (JNF), with the aim of strengthening and revitalizing the local community and developing social and climate resilience in the spirit of Olympic values.
The annual emissions of the NOC amount to approximately 450 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq), with about 70% of the emissions coming from flights of official delegations to competitions. The emissions from the delegation’s flights to Paris totaled approximately 220 tons, which is equivalent to the average annual emissions of about 75 medium-sized family cars or around 3,000 trips between Metula and Eilat, or the emissions from preparing about 740,000 cups of espresso or running about 1,000 washing machines at 30 degrees every day for a year. The NOC offset these emissions by planting approximately 250 trees.
Yael Arad, President of the Olympic Committee of Israel said “Planting a community climate forest marks a significant milestone in the Sustainability Strategy Plan led by the NOC of Israel. The goal of this initiative is twofold. In one aspect, it promotes an environmental agenda by offsetting the carbon emissions of the the Olympic delegation’s flights for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In the second aspect, it expresses our social responsibility to strengthen and re-grow the local community in the spirit of Olympic Values, which is why we chose to cooperate with the Sderot Municipality. We thank all partners and believe that in the coming years the Olympic athletes will become agents of change in Israeli sports to create a more sustainable society.”
