Nine million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. That is the projected climate cost of the 48-team, three-country, 16-city soccer tournament that kicks off June 11 in Mexico City — nearly double the average emissions of every World Cup held between 2010 and 2022.

The figure comes from a peer-reviewed analysis published by Scientists for Global Responsibility, the Environmental Defense Fund, Cool Down, the Sport for Climate Action Network, and the New Weather Institute. Their conclusion: FIFA’s decision to expand the tournament and spread it across a continent has locked in a climate footprint that no amount of host-city recycling or LED lighting can offset.

Which makes the question of which host cities are doing serious sustainability work more important, not less. Their practices will outlast the tournament.

The Problem Is Structural

World Cup-related team air travel will account for roughly 7.7 million tons of CO2-equivalent — about 85% of the total, according to the SGR analysis. That is the direct consequence of two FIFA decisions. First, the tournament grew from 32 to 48 teams and from 64 to 104 matches. Second, FIFA chose to hold those matches across Canada, Mexico, and the United States rather than concentrate them in a single region.

The contrast with the previous tournament is stark. Qatar 2022 kept its eight stadiums within 34 miles of each other. The shortest distance between 2026 stadiums, from MetLife in New Jersey to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, is 95.5 miles. Most teams’ itineraries cover thousands of miles. One UEFA playoff winner, according to a Fossil Free Football analysis, could travel Toronto to Los Angeles (2,175 miles), then Los Angeles to Seattle (932 miles), then, in the knockout rounds, another 2,500 miles to Boston.

FIFA does not set binding emissions limits for host cities, and it did not address the underlying decision to spread the tournament across North America. SGR’s researchers urged FIFA to reverse the team expansion, set mandatory environmental standards, and end sponsorship deals with high-emitting companies, including the Saudi oil company Aramco, whose sponsorship is estimated to result in an additional 30 million tons of CO2e due to energy sales linked to the tournament’s promotion.

The Heat Risk Nobody Planned For

Climate change is not just an abstraction measured in tournament emissions. It is a condition players and fans will experience in real time. The SGR/EDF report assessed heat, flooding, and extreme weather risk at all 16 stadiums. Six face extreme heat stress due to Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures above 80°F, the threshold where exertion becomes dangerous. Eight of the 16 cities require what the researchers called immediate environmental intervention. Four need critical intervention, according to the report.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, which will host nine World Cup matches — more than any other venue — experiences 37 days per year above 95°F, with July wet bulb readings that exceed FIFA safety thresholds.

Houston’s NRG Stadium faces simultaneous heat, flooding, and wildfire risk.

Los Angeles contends with wildfire smoke.

Miami faces hurricanes.

Where Host Cities Lead, and Where They Lag

A sustainability ranking published by World Sports Network in April 2026 attempts to score the 16 host cities across transit access, electric vehicle infrastructure, waste, air pollution, urban greening, and greenhouse gas emissions. The methodology has limits — it weights all factors equally, uses stadium-specific data alongside city-wide data, and includes some questionable proxies — but its directional finding is consistent with what urban sustainability researchers have long documented about the climate in North American cities.

Vancouver tops the rankings. British Columbia generates roughly 95% of its electricity from renewable sources, largely hydropower. BC Place sits in the center of Vancouver, with 26 public transit stops within a 10-minute walk. Fans can reach it by SkyTrain or bus. That single design decision eliminates most of the vehicle trips and parking-lot sprawl that define a typical U.S. stadium day.

Boston ranked second, the highest-scoring U.S. city. That is less about inherent greenness than about what severe flooding has forced the city to prepare for. Boston experienced 19 days of flooding in 2024, and sea levels around the city are projected to rise 20 centimeters by 2030 relative to 2000. The city’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance requires large buildings to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, with interim targets that have already tightened performance at Gillette Stadium’s surrounding infrastructure.

Mexico City placed third, Toronto fourth, Monterrey fifth. The pattern shows that four of the top five cities are outside the United States, even though 11 of the 16 host cities are American. Mexico City’s transformation from one of the most polluted major cities in the world into one of the Americas’ most active urban reforesters, with over 27 million trees and plants added between 2018 and 2021, is the kind of long-horizon work that does not fit inside a tournament timeline but shapes what that timeline makes possible.

The American Transit Problem

Every U.S. host city except Boston falls in the bottom half of the WSN ranking, and the reason is almost always the same: transit.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington has no public transit stops within a 10-minute walk. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which will host seven matches, sits 17 miles north of downtown Miami with no rail connection. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, MetLife in East Rutherford, and NRG in Houston all require a car, a shuttle, or a rideshare for most attendees.

Dallas-Fort Worth is ranked third in the world for transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, a structural problem no single event can fix. The Dallas organizing committee has built a sustainability plan in collaboration with the University of Texas at Arlington’s chief sustainability officer, Meghna Tare. It addresses waste management, single-use plastic reduction, composting, and community legacy. The North Central Texas Council of Governments has designed a charter bus system to fill the transit gap for the nine matches AT&T Stadium will host. These are real efforts. They also show that when infrastructure is car-dependent, event-specific workarounds can reduce harm but don’t substitute for the public transit that does not exist.

What This Means Beyond the Tournament

The 2026 World Cup will be a 34-day event watched by a projected 5 million in-person fans and up to 6 billion viewers worldwide. The emissions it generates will dissipate into an atmosphere that cannot tell tournament carbon from commuting carbon. What will persist are the infrastructure choices each host city makes now, including whether transit lines are extended or not, stadium renovations that meet LEED standards or do not, food recovery programs that continue operating after the final match or get packed away with the branded signage.

These are not reasons to hate world football. It’s the Beautiful Game, and its governing body, FIFA, can make changes to reduce the tournament’s impact and protect players from heat-related injuries.

The post The 2026 World Cup Will Be the Most Polluting Ever appeared first on Earth911.

NILAI, April 26 — National track cycling ace Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang has added another medal to his collection at the 2026 Track Cycling World Cup after winning bronze in the men’s individual sprint event at the National Velodrome, Nilai here today.

Azizulhasni, who created a sensation by clinching gold in the men’s keirin yesterday, had no trouble defeating Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Nikita Kiriltsev in the bronze medal decider.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist had defeated Huang Ruiting of China in the round of 16 before continuing his fine form by eliminating Dominik Topinka of the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.

However, the 38-year-old athlete lost to Nicholas Paul of Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals.

In the three-race contest, Azizulhasni won the first race, but Paul bounced back to dominate the second race before securing victory in the decider to advance to the final.

The gold medal in the sprint event went to world champion Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands, who made amends for his disappointment at finishing second in the keirin, while Paul settled for silver.

Meanwhile, another national representative, Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom, was eliminated in the round of 16 after losing to Mattia Predomo of Italy.

For the record, Azizulhasni also clinched bronze in the men’s individual sprint at the World Cup series in Perth, Australia, in March.

Meanwhile, the hopes of national women’s track cyclist Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri to advance to the final of the keirin event were dashed after she was eliminated in the semi-finals before finishing 11th in the classification race for positions seven to 12.

Another national representative, Nur Alyssa Mohd Farid, was eliminated in the second round.

The three-day championship concludes today. — Bernama

Bogotá, Colombia – Mexican authorities have said they will tighten security around tourist sites following a shooting on Monday that killed a Canadian tourist and injured twelve others.

The attack at the Teotihuacan pyramids by a lone gunman has renewed concerns about fan safety ahead of the 2026 World Cup Games, which will be co-hosted by Mexico. 

But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sought to re-assure visitors, maintaining that mass shootings are rare in the country and describing the incident as a one-off.

“Our obligation as a government is to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again,” said Sheinbaum on Tuesday morning.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch added that state security forces had been ordered to “immediately strengthen security” at tourist destinations across the country.  

The Teotihuacan pyramids are a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of Mexico’s most visited archaeological complexes.

But Sheinbaum was also careful to stress that attacks like the one on Monday are incredibly rare in Mexico: “Clearly, we all know — Mexicans know — that this is something that had not previously taken place.”

Unlike in the United States, guns are difficult to obtain legally in Mexico and mass shootings targeting members of the public are uncommon.

While Mexico has grappled for years with high homicide rates, shootings tend to happen in specific areas marked by cartel violence and rarely affect tourists.

Ideological motivations

Rather than a sign of broader security struggles, authorities maintain that Monday’s shooting was perpetrated by a ‘lone wolf’ actor driven by extremist views.

Sergio Ortiz Borbolla, head of campaigns and communications at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, maintained that Julio César Jasso Ramírez, 27, was a Nazi sympathizer inspired by other mass shootings. 

“Although the investigation is still ongoing, several factors point to an ideological motive,” said Ortiz.

He noted that Monday’s shooting happened on Adolf Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in the U.S., which killed 14. 

The perpetrator’s social media included posts where he performed a Nazi salute and a framed AI-generated photo of him side-by-side with the Columbine shooters was found at the scene of the attack, according to authorities. 

“The incident… highlights the growing influence of extremist online communities on acts of violence, a trend that transcends national borders,” noted Ortiz. 

Mexican Attorney-General Cervantes also described “a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to imitate situations that occurred in other places, at other times, and involving other individuals – this tendency can be referred to as copycat behaviour”.

Countdown to the games

Monday’s shooting is the latest headache for the Mexican government ahead of this summer’s soccer competition. 

A wave of cartel violence in February, including in World Cup host city Guadalajara, sparked concerns about the threat posed by organized crime in the country. 

But the government has been engaged in a push to assure visitors that the country is safe, announcing plans to mobilize 100,000 security forces this summer. It also said it will deploy an additional 2,100 military vehicles, 24 aircraft, and 33 drones.

But, as Ortiz noted, the type of violence seen in Mexico this week is “not common.” 

“There is no indication that this type of attack poses a widespread risk to tourists,” he concluded.

Featured image description: The Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan – one of the largest in Mesoamerica, México.

Featured image credit: Marcelosan via WIkimedia Commons

The post Mexico boosts security after pyramid attack but plays down shooting risks appeared first on Latin America Reports.

• US special envoy Zampolli hopes for Italy involvement

• Doubts remain over Iran’s participation

An envoy to Donald Trump has asked Fifa to replace Iran with Italy in the upcoming World Cup, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The plan is an effort to repair ties between Trump and Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni after the two fell out amid the American president’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

• Mikie Sherrill says taxpayers should not carry burden

• Costs at World Cup have come under increased scrutiny

New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, has hit out at Fifa after reports her state’s transport system will charge $100 for a return ticket to World Cup matches this summer.

New Jersey Transit lists the price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, which will host eight World Cup matches this summer, including the final, as $12.90. The new pricing, reported by The Athletic earlier this week, puts the return ticket at more than $100 with no reductions for children, seniors or people with disabilities. NJ Transit told Fox 5 New York that the price has not been finalized. A decision is expected in the coming days.