Paris 2024, Dakar 2026 and Beyond: Building Sustainable Olympism

With every passing day, countries and people are becoming more aware of the urgency of climate change, its negative consequences on the planet, and the need to adopt more sustainable practices. In this respect, it is of course crucial for the Olympic Movement to lead the way, by embracing a greater number of green initiatives and establishing a more sustainable structure for the Olympic Games. The example of Paris 2024, with its ambition from the outset to halve the carbon footprint of the previous editions and its focus on their legacy, is in this regard instructive and holds lessons for the future. However, and while it would not be desirable or probably even possible to turn back, the inclusion of this requirement in major sporting events, which should become a standard, must in no way constitute an insurmountable entry barrier to their organisation in places other than in developed countries. The work carried out on this subject in the context of the Youth Olympic Games which will be held in Dakar in 2026, the first Olympic event of this importance in Africa, forms part of this approach to accommodating a sustainable development objective for the Games, for the benefit of all the people and all the youth of the world.

While the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be opening in Paris in the coming days, it appears useful to analyse how this event and the following ones can fit in with the broader international objectives shared by the member countries of the Olympic Movement and, in particular, the framework defined by the Paris Pact for People and the Planet in June 2023.