commonwealth

Commonwealth

Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games, October 3-14 [|http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org]

Delhi will host the XIX Commonwealth Games between 3-4 October 2010 which will see the participation of 71 Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA). The Games are being held for the first time in India and assume great national importance and are a matter of pride for the country. There will be 17 sports played across 22 sporting venues, 43 training venues and a new state-of-the-art Games Village is being built to house the athletes and CGA officials.

Official Games website at [|www.cwgdelhi2010.org]

The Commonwealth Games, featuring 71 nations and territories, isexpected to be the biggest multi-sport event to be staged in India since the Asian Games in 1982. In 2006 they were held in Melbourne and the 2014 Games are due to be held in Glasgow.

[|'The Shame Games']
New Delhi will host the Commonwealth Games from October 2010. While it is more than likely that India will host an incredible opening ceremony with the spectacle, colour and razzle dazzle of the Bollywood film industry, questions are being asked about the shoddy building work, the corruption and the political bureaucracy surrounding the Games.

[|The 2010 Commonwealth Games Go Green] The Ecological Codes, as the new measures are called, are to be promoted jointly with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) over the next eight months in the run-up to the opening ceremony.
 * Nairobi, 17 February 2010 -** The environment will play a key role in this year’s Commonwealth Games with the organizers in Delhi today announcing a series of green measures from boosting energy efficiency and air quality to expanding the city’s forests.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, represent an inordinate opportunity to pilot innovative ideas and transformational policies able to deliver a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy.”

“The potential positive impact for Delhi’s 14 million inhabitants is matched by the environmental awareness generated across the world. UNEP is delighted to be working with the Commonwealth Games for the first time ever and we look forward to a positive environmental legacy for the residents of this historic, capital city,” he added.

The new Ecological Codes launched today will provide guidelines on conserving biodiversity, energy efficiency, effective waste management, reduced air and noise pollution and sustainable transportation.

Since October 2007, when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the organizers of the Commonwealth Games, UNEP has acted as an advisor for promoting environmental awareness and ensuring that the best of international practices are being implemented to ensure a green sporting event.

As a major emerging economy with a sixth of the world’s population, India faces major challenges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. Transportation alone is a major contributor to climate change and air pollution in mega-cities like Delhi.

In the run-up to the start of the Commonwealth Games in October, however, Delhi has already taken critical steps to make an environmentally sustainable transport sector that will alleviate the traffic congestion.

Major improvements of the metro system are underway and the city boasts one of the largest natural gas-driven bus fleets in the world. Renewable energy is also becoming a major component of the Games.

The Thyagaraj Stadium, which is harvesting water and has walls made of recycled bricks, has a roof covered in solar panels, making it one of the best models of a green sporting venue in the country and maybe even in the world.

Over recent years, UNEP has been working with an increasing number of sporting events. The UN agency was the lead environmental advisor for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the Vancouver Winter Olympics which just started last weekend and the Games that will take place in Sochi, Russia in 2014. UNEP also worked with the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006 and is now working with FIFA in South Africa for this year’s World Cup.

In India, UNEP is also working with the Indian Premier League (IPL) to green cricket matches. The League is now planning to build solar power plants on the roofs of the cricket stadiums all over India and in close cooperation with UNEP, will calculate its carbon footprint and compensate the emissions of some of its games. As the partnership develops, the IPL will compensate more and more of its games and green its operations, from waste management to energy efficiency and water.

For more information, visit [|**www.unep.org**]