Every four years, the FIFA World Cup does something no climate summit or intergovernmental forum can fully replicate: it moves the world. Literally.
Millions of fans board planes, fill trains and drive across borders, drawn by football’s power to bring people together. The 2026 edition, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, is expected to generate around 7.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, more than double the footprint of Qatar 2022.1 Nearly 88% of that comes from fans travel.
Mega events depend on mobility, and mobility depends on transport systems that countries are, in theory, working to decarbonise. Under the Paris Agreement, every country submits Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), climate plans that are updated in five-year cycles, each generation expected to be more ambitious than the last. Transport is one of the largest and fastest growing sources of emissions worldwide, so how a country treats transport in its NDC is indicative of how seriously it takes the sector.
So we asked a simple question: what do the World Cup hosts since the Paris Agreement actually commit to? Using the NDC Transport Tracker, we looked at all nine countries have hosted or will host the tournament between 2018 and 2034: Russia (2018), Qatar (2022), the United States, Canada, and Mexico (2026), then Spain, Portugal and Morocco with centenary matches in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay (2030), and Saudi Arabia (2034).
Between them they span every stage of development, emissions profile and ambition, and each brings a different story to the question of transport and climate.
Canada is the standout of the current hosts trio. Its active NDC sets a clear, trackable goal: 100% of new light-duty vehicles sold must be zero-emission by 2035, backed by measures like expanding EV charging networks, purchase incentives for zero-emission trucks and buses, and a public transit fund starting in 2026 worth 3 billion dollars a year. Canada also commits to net zero by 2050.
Explore Canada’s transport commitments on the NDC Transport Tracker →
Both countries report through the European Union’s joint NDC. Its active third generation NDC sets a 100% CO2 reduction for new cars and vans by 2035, requires a growing share of sustainable aviation fuel at EU airports, reaching 70% by 2050, and caps the carbon intensity of maritime fuels with cuts of up to 80% by 2050. It also points to rail’s growing role, with passenger numbers reaching a record 429 billion kilometres travelled in 2023, as part of the EU’s push to shift trips away from cars. The whole framework sits under a 2050 climate neutrality target.
Explore the transport commitments in the EU’s joint NDC →
Few countries show as much consistency as Morocco. The country has carried a transport energy target through every NDC since 2016, and its active NDC commits to a 24.5% reduction in transport energy consumption by 2030. The measures behind it have grown too: an extension of the high-speed rail line from Kenitra to Marrakech, a bigger Casablanca tramway network, electrification of the Oriental railway, and a scrap-and-replace programme to phase out older, higher-emission vehicles.
See how Morocco’s target evolved across every NDC since 2016 →
Russia staged the most geographically dispersed World Cup on record, with matches played from Kaliningrad on the Baltic to Yekaterinburg on the edge of Asia, more than 3,000 kilometres apart. Its active NDC lacks a quantified transport target, but it does contain transport measures such as hydrogen fuelling infrastructure, EV charging, vehicle and rail electrification that covers over 85% of passenger and freight traffic, alongside a commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060.
Explore Russia’s transport measures in detail →
Held in November and December due to extreme summer heat, Qatar 2022 was the first World Cup hosted in a single city, with all matches within 50 kilometres of Doha and connected by a new metro system. For a country with some of the highest per capita emissions in the world, its active NDC lists far more transport measures than its previous generations: expanding the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram, a regional rail network by 2030, a bigger Bus Rapid Transit system, a passenger ferry between Hamad and Doha ports, electric buses and taxis, and a growing public EV charging network. These measures are not yet paired with a quantified transport target or a net-zero goal.
Compare Qatar’s three NDC generations →
The United States emits about 1,702 million tonnes of CO2 from transport per year, the highest of any host. Yet across all three NDC generations, its climate plans have never included a transport target. Its active NDC does list a broad set of measures, from EV charging infrastructure and zero-emission freight corridors to sustainable aviation and marine fuels, clean port investment and active transportation funding.
Dig into the US transport data on the Tracker →
Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca hosted World Cup matches for a record third time. Transport is one of Mexico’s top sources of emissions from fuel combustion2 and its NDCs have steadily filled with content to match: a National Electric Mobility Strategy, rail expansion including new freight and passenger lines, sustainable fuels for aviation and shipping, and programmes to shift commuters toward remote work and public transport. What is still missing is a quantified transport target. Mexico does propose a net-zero goal by 2050 conditional on international support.
See how transport has grown across Mexico’s NDCs →
Saudi Arabia’s five future host cities are spread nearly 1,000 kilometres apart, across Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Abha, and a new desert city still under construction, Neom. Its active NDC is thinner on transport than its previous ones, focusing on fuel economy standards for its vehicle fleet, and a push toward lower-carbon aviation fuel through cleaner refining. Like Qatar and Russia, its active NDC does not include a quantified transport target, but with eight years to kick-off and projects the size of entire cities under way, much can still take shape before the first match.
Explore transport in Saudi Arabia’s NDCs →
The evolution of the World Cup, from a single-country tournament of 32 teams to a multi-continent, 48-team event, is itself a climate story. Each expansion decision is a transport decision: more teams, more matches, more host cities, more spectators, longer distances. Where a World Cup is hosted matters for its carbon footprint as much as how well-connected its host cities are.
Across nine hosts, most countries name transport measures; fewer set targets that can be tracked. Of course, NDCs are not the whole story. Countries also act through national and local policies, and plenty of transport ambition lives outside these documents. But NDCs are how countries formally state their commitment to the world, and looking at nine of them gives a read on where that commitment stands, set against an event of this scale, one that highly depends on getting people moving.
So, offside on climate? Not quite. No host country has broken the rules, because the World Cup and the NDC process were never on the same pitch to begin with. But given the scale of this event and the impact that comes with it, they should be.
Explore the full data behind this piece, and every other country’s transport commitments, at the GIZ-SLOCAT NDC Transport Tracker here.
The NDC Transport Tracker is developed by GIZ Transport and the SLOCAT Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport. It is part of the Mobilize Net Zero project that is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and is funded through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).
A football trophy on the pitch. Photo by My Profit Tutor on Unsplash
Belén Vásquez
maria.vasquez1@giz.de
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