The World Cup was meant to be carbon-neutral. FIFA hasn’t released the figures, so we built a computer model to check

In 2018, when the United States, Canada and Mexico bid to host the World Cup, their pitch included a climate promise: the bid committee said it would strive to deliver a carbon-neutral event. The bid’s environmental assessment, a 97-page report by the consultancy Arup, estimated a footprint of 3.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) across 80 matches. Eight years later, the tournament – which ended on Sunday with Spain beating Argentina 1-0 in the final – was far larger than the…