Fans Flocked to World Cup Host Cities—Causing 80 Percent of the Tournament’s Emissions

Major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and global music tours are major events that generate significant cultural and economic value. But these events also come with massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions caused by international travel, building infrastructure, and mass consumption.

Last week, a research team from the University of Cambridge released a new framework in the journal Communications Sustainability to evaluate mega-events from the perspective of “climate viability.” Analyzing the 2026 FIFA World Cup , which ended on Sunday, and Coldplay’s 2024 European tour, the scientists weighed the consumer welfare gains of each event against the emissions costs.

“Effective climate strategies for mega-events like the World Cup go well beyond reducing operational emissions at venues, as this is only a fraction of the overall footprint,” Cambridge professor Shaun Larcom explained in an announcement about the report’s findings.

According to the research team’s estimates, the expansion of the 2026 World Cup to a 48-team format is expected to increase total emissions by approximately 590,000 metric tons compared to the 32-team tournament of years prior, reaching about 4.23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Of that total, 82 percent is attributable to fan travel, with international travel accounting for approximately 3.07 million metric tons. The estimated emissions from the 2026 World Cup were on par with Iceland’s total annual emissions, the researchers found.

If the climate cost of these emissions were passed directly on to spectators, it would amount to an additional cost of $114 per match ticket on average. Applying the same framework to Coldplay’s 2024 European tour (10 cities, 32 shows, 1.9 million tickets), the climate cost without mitigation measures would amount to $11 per ticket. While the scale and the distances traveled by fans differ from those of the World Cup—and the research team says it did not intend to directly compare the two—the tour shows who the “key players” in emissions reduction are.

Coldplay has made efforts to cut the emissions tied to putting on the show, including using mobile battery systems and generating power through solar power and a kinetic dancefloor. But the researchers estimate that approximately 98 percent of the emissions reductions on Coldplay’s tour were due to fans voluntarily reevaluating their travel methods. The band offered a dedicated app that allowed fans to compare low-carbon transportation options, along with discounts on merchandise for fans who traveled in an environmentally conscious manner, helped drive this behavioral change.