“The bigger an event, the more people attend, the more that fly to the different venues, the higher it emits,” says Alexis Normand, co-founder of Greenly. “That’s the reason the U.S., Mexico, and Canadian World Cup is going to be basically a record setter [emitter], because it’ll have nearly three times more spectators than the previous World Cup, and they’re going to be traveling across much larger distances.”
The Greenly team drew on publicly available data to predict the 2026 World Cup’s total greenhouse gas footprint—covering team flights, spectator travel, stadium operations, renovations, accommodation, logistics, and waste.
One of the emissions sources few people think about is spectator travel; 87% of emissions are expected to come not from stadiums or logistics, but from the spectators’ journeys. Though international fans will likely account for 35% of attendances, they are expected to generate 74% of travel-related emissions, Greenly’s research estimates.