2024 Olympics: How Paris aims to set new standards

"The expectations for Paris are high — in every respect," said International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach last summer, a year before the start of the Paris Olympics. The idea is to make the 2024 Summer Olympics sustainable and inclusive, with gender equality being a top priority.

Organizers are also aiming to make the host city an integral part of the Games. The opening ceremony won't be in the Olympic Stadium, but rather on the Seine with more than 400,000 people lining the banks of the river.

What are the Paris Olympics sustainability goals?

The Paris 2024 organizers are planning to reduce CO2 emissions by around half to about1.58 million tons, compared to 3.4 million released at the 2012 London Summer Games, and 3.6 million in Rio de Janeiro four years later.

A major part of the strategy is to keep travel to a minimum. Almost all of the Olympic venues are located within a radius of just 10 kilometers (6 miles) — though the surfing competition will be held more than 15,000 kilometers (about 9,300 miles) away, on the South Pacific island of Tahiti.

The venue planning means most athletes should be able to reach their venues within just 30 minutes. Ninety-five percent of the venues, such as the Parc des Princes or Roland Garros, already existed long before the decision to host was taken. Organizers are also focusing on the use of renewable energy as well as sustainable catering and recycling.

Emissions that cannot be reduced or prevented are to be offset by environmentally friendly projects such as reforestation. Organizers aim to support local projects to combat climate change particularly in Paris and the Ile-de-France region around the French capital. One facet is the "Climate Coach" app, which is designed to help people reduce their personal and professional carbon footprints.

Which climate protection measures are being implemented?

One important step is the extensive cleansing of the Seine, where the open water swimming and triathlon competitions are to take place. The idea is that after the Games are over, both locals and tourists will be able to swim in the city's famous river.

Most of the energy for the Games is to come from renewable sources like wind and solar power, and organizers are promoting environmentally friendly means of transport to the venues such as the subway and bicycles. They have also made a point of refraining from constructing any new parking facilities near the sports venues.

During the Games, the focus will be on sustainable, low-meat catering featuring local and seasonal products as a way to to minimize waste and food waste. During the Games, the amount of single-use plastic is to be halved through reusable drinking bottles and drinking fountains.

The construction of the Olympic Village in the Seine-Saint-Denis department generated 47% fewer CO2 emissions than conventional methods, 

"We used a lot of wood, low-carbon concrete [and] used ships for transportation, which has saved us 25,000 truck journeys, and we have installed a heating and cooling system based on geothermal energy," Marion Le Paul, deputy director general of Solideo, the public body in charge of Olympic infrastructure, told DW.

The athletes' village will also be without air conditioning.

A year before the start of the Games, Paris began converting parking spots in the city into green spaces, building new cycle paths and anti-noise walls and renovating buildings to make them more climate-friendly.

There are also plans to lower the speed limits on Paris' highways and ban buses from the city center.

How will Paris ensure security at the Games?

According to city hall, Paris is expecting around 10 million visitors during the Games. In light of the terrorist attacks in 2015 and the chaos at the 2022 Champions League final in the Stade de France, the National Assembly has passed special legislation that will apply for the duration of the Olympic Games and a few months beyond. Among other things, this will allow for comprehensive video surveillance controlled by artificial intelligence.

Mass video surveillance with AI-controlled cameras and drones are designed to detect suspicious movements of individuals or large groups of people and alert the police if necessary. They might be used in the streets, as well as in stadiums and on public transport. Motorized traffic will generally be severely restricted for the duration of the Games, and some metro stations will be temporarily closed.

The Paris police chief has also announced drastic security measures for local residents, who will require a QR code to pass through police barriers to enter restricted areas to be set up around the Olympic venues.

Residents will also have to register any visitors hoping to watch the events from their balconies, windows, rooftops or even from houseboats.

Has there been criticism of the Olympic plans?

One local resident, Hamid Ouidir, told DW that he and many of his neighbors doubt the Games will benefit them in any way.

Ouidir fears the economic impact and additional traffic will further worsen the already poor air quality in the city. He also doesn't believe that the apartments being built will do anything to alleviate the current housing shortage, as they are reserved for buyers from outside the French capital.

Athletes and officials, meanwhile, have criticized the lack of air conditioning in the Olympic Village in view of a possible heat wave.

Even if the rooms are 6 degrees Celsius (about 11 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the outside temperature, as promised, this will not be acceptable at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The security plan has also drawn massive criticism. Some politicians fear for the freedoms of citizens, possibly even beyond the Games. Human rights activists such as Amnesty International have spoken out against the "draconian technologies of mass surveillance," and see people's right to privacy and peaceful assembly at risk. They fear that the next step will be the introduction of facial recognition technology — a violation of data protection rights.

Not surprisingly, an announcement by local authorities that the ticket price for visitors using Paris' ailing subway system during the Games will almost double, has also drawn criticism. Line B in particular, which runs to the Seine-Saint-Denis district where a number of events will take place, is causing headaches for organizers.

Environmentalists have rejected the claim that the Games will have a positive impact on the climate or be sustainable. An event of this size always causes an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, they've said, especially when the event is hosted in one of the most visited cities in the world.

This article was originally written in German.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding