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World Cup Preparation Scores a Goal against the Environment

MEXICO CITY, Jun 15 2026 (IPS) - The construction of an elevated pedestrian bridge connecting central and southern Mexico City –one of roughly 2,000 urban works tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, began last October, and, with only days to go before the tournament’s kickoff, remains unfinished.

When work broke ground, the Mexican capital, one of three host cities in this Latin American country, had no environmental plan in place –a requirement under the sustainability framework of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the sport’s global governing body.

The 2026 World Cup spans three North American nations –Canada, the United States and Mexico, where the opening match was played last Thursday 11th at the iconic Estadio Azteca, now officially named Banorte Stadium, in Mexico City.

The unfinished bridge is not an isolated case, as it reflects the broader dynamic in Mexico City, where the local administration has launched some 2,000 construction projects ahead of the tournament, accelerating preparations throughout 2025 for a metropolis of nine million residents –23 million including greater metropolitan areas–.

The two other Mexican host venues face comparable shortfalls. Zapopan, neighboring Guadalajara in the western Jalisco state, and Guadalupe, on the outskirts of Monterrey in northern Nuevo León, have environmental plans riddled with gaps and not designed for mass events like a World Cup.

In all three cases, sustainability became an afterthought. The absolute priority was speed – ensuring completion before the opening whistle.

FIFA’s sustainability strategy encompasses the social, environmental, economic and governance pillars, and covers all three phases of tournament organization: preparation, staging and post-event activities, from strategy development through to the final sustainability and human rights report. FIFA, headquartered in Zürich, requires host cities to integrate environmental and human rights into their planning.

The strategy includes the prevention and mitigation of adverse environmental impacts, as well as measures to protect the ecosystems and address environmental degradation and its consequences on human rights.

The plan also stipulates protections for groups or populations facing disproportionate risks associated with the World Cup environmental footprint, addressing potential environmental risks related to the tournament’s organization, and tackling the effects tied to modifications made during its preparation.

Its environmental pillar comprises energy efficiency, waste reduction, city-level transport planning, impact prevention and mitigation. However, the strategy does not establish a specific carbon budget or an updated emissions estimate for the tournament.

The environmental factor is critical due to issues such as waste generation and water scarcity –common challenges across all three Mexican cities, as well as ongoing construction projects, particularly in Mexico City.

This reporter filed dozens of public information requests to agencies across all three host municipalities. None possessed estimates for carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions –the human-generated gas responsible for global warming, energy consumption, traffic volume, waste generation, water use or public transport ridership tied to the World Cup.

The gaps extended across virtually every relevant institution: Mexico’s Office of the Presidency; Mexico City’s Mayor’s Office; the capital’s secretaries for Mobility, Environment and Water Management; local public transit services; and the boroughs of Coyoacán and Tlalpan have no records of these measurements.

The same was true in Jalisco, where the state General Secretary of Government, the Secretaries of Environment and Territorial Development, the general coordination offices of Municipal Services, Public Works, Mobility and Transport, and Strategic Growth and Economic Development; the State Water Commission, the Inter-municipal Water and Sanitation Services System, and Guadalajara and Zapopan local governments confirmed they had no such projections. In Nuevo León, the pattern repeated itself: state and municipal environment and mobility agencies, along with the Monterrey water utility, have failed to produce these projections.

Gabriela Cuevas, a former senator from the opposition National Action Party (PAN) now serving as the presidential delegate for the World Cup, told this reporter her schedule was full and referred the inquiry to the Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection (Profepa). In a June 4 appearance at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, Cuevas asserted Mexico had met all FIFA requirements. FIFA did not respond to a request for comment.

The Mayor’s Office referred inquiries to the Secretary of Territorial Management, whose communications department stated that the matter fell outside its jurisdiction.

This silence is no accident; the government’s priority is the absolute success of the competition, overshadowing improvisations, mistakes, and complaints.

Urban window-dressing

Sources consulted for this article doubt on the environmental credentials and the necessity of many of the projects, while also denouncing a lack of public consultation to affected communities in several cases.

Rubén Ramírez, Santa Úrsula local community’s traditional authority –where Banorte Stadium stands, said the works fail to address the area’s most pressing crises, such as water availability, mobility, and the unchecked surge in construction.

“From the two World Cups that have been held (in Mexico), they have made millions, while the town has been left behind”, he said, referring to the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, both of which featured prominently the then-Azteca Stadium.

Mexico City legal framework requires authorities to consult indigenous and traditional communities before carrying out works on their territories –a requirement that was not met in the World Cup preparations, residents say. Locals have also complained of inadequate information and no meaningful response to their concerns.

Amid water shortages, a lack of green spaces, and poor mobility, the Santa Úrsula neighborhood has lived in the shadow of the stadium for half a century, but nothing has compared to this tournament. Its narrow streets are now bracing for thousands of visitors and dozens of public transit units in the so-called “Last Mile” corridor to the arena.

Alejandro Cerezo, who lives within the area of influence of the modernized stadium, considers the works to be mere “showcase projects” with no real environmental benefit.

“They didn’t build infrastructure. The right to mobility is restricted by road closures. It’s their plan, they (the government) execute it, and for everything else, there’s no consultation”, said Cerezo, a human rights defender.

In April, with dozens of projects already underway, Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada unveiled the “Green World Cup: With Fair Play, the Planet Wins” –a ten-point initiative covering recycling, clean air and sustainable food.

Furthermore, in March, she had announced a Human Rights Agenda for the capital ahead of the tournament, comprising more than 100 actions under six headings, including mobility, non-discrimination, diversity and transparency.

One of these pillars, dubbed “Green Pitch” (Cancha Verde), supports economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights, with an emphasis on promoting circular economy principles and waste reduction.

The capital government has painted the city purple –the city government’s colour of presumed feminist alignment, and has plastered images of axolotls on every corner. The species, endemic to Mexico City, is critically endangered. For the Brugada administration, its ubiquitous image serves as a proxy for environmental credibility.

The true color is gray, the dye of the concrete poured across the city. Simply inserting the words “green” or “environmental” into every official message has not, by itself, made this World Cup any greener.

Mexico City, Guadalupe, and Zapopan—which expect to receive over five million visitors—have focused their efforts exclusively on projects surrounding the stadiums and the transit infrastructure needed to reach them: roadways and public transportation.

The Mexican capital has also tackled hydraulic works, rainwater capture, street lighting, pedestrian mobility and the rehabilitation of avenues surrounding the stadium, which will host five matches. Larger projects include the renovation of the international airport and an upgrade to one Metro public transit system line.

Across all three cities, the population breathes polluted air, faces water access issues, and copes with massive waste generation.

Insufficient Plans

Guadalupe, Nuevo León –home to BBVA Stadium, which will host four matches — has no specific plan for large-scale events that incorporates environmental and human rights obligations, no equity or environmental justice framework, and no quantifiable targets for emissions, renewable energy or carbon footprint reduction.

The town, which has 635,718 residents –while the Monterrey metropolitan area counts 5.32 million, has a regulation for stationary emission sources. Its Article 129 sets specific environmental guidelines for collection centers and sport fields, as well as frameworks for waste management, ecosystem protection and public participation.

The Guadalupe Programme, announced in 2025, includes cleanup actions, paving, reforestation, improvements to parks and plazas, as well as traffic safety campaigns. The local administration announced a mobility plan in May –one month before kick-off. Civil society organizations had already flagged poor public transport planning in February.

In Zapopan, home to Akron Stadium (host for four games) and located near Guadalajara, the Municipal Climate Action Programme lacks an environmental justice approach, a human rights-environment nexus and any assessment of cumulative impacts from the tournament. Furthermore, it is not designed for large-scale international events like the World Cup.

On the positive side, its ban on single-use plastics and polystyrene in commercial establishments represents a concrete step toward tournament sustainability.

In response to an FOIA request, the municipal council said it was still calculating greenhouse gas emissions and waste projections.

Over the course of this year, human rights organizations have recorded at least 15 protests over mobility issues in Guadalajara, whose metropolitan area totals 5.32 million residents, while Zapopan has 1.58 million.

“There are impacts from the closure of public spaces, not just from construction. We don’t know the environmental impact of the works”, said Denise Montiel, the Centro de Justicia para la Paz y el Desarrollo director, a Guadalajara-based NGO.

The construction of a public electric bus line –originally conceived as a metro track, began in 2025 without local permits. The lane links Guadalajara’s airport to the metropolitan area, with a stop at the stadium.

 

Water for Whom?

Water scarcity is among the most critical issues across all three host cities. Six NGOs warn that consumption could rise 40 to 60 percent during the contest in the three metropolises.

In Mexico City, where one in four households does not receive water daily and nearly four in ten liters are lost to leaks, an estimated 15,000 additional visitors could require some 2,250 cubic meters (m3) of water per day.

Guadalajara faces a similar crisis, as three of the four aquifers supplying the city suffer from a deficit because extraction outpaces recharge. It is estimated that an additional 18 000 people could require nearly 2700 m3 of water per day.

Monterrey is no different. All four of its supply aquifers are in the red, and the city carries a permanent deficit of 2.1 m3 between supply and demand. An estimated 15 000 additional visitors could require daily some 2250 m3.

 

The Dirtiest Cup

The 2026 World Cup is the largest in history, featuring 48 teams, 104 matches across 16 cities in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It is also set to be the most polluting ever, according to two recent studies.

The 2026 tournament is expected to generate 7,8 million tons of CO2—double the 2022 Qatar World Cup level of 3.6 million –primarily due to fan travel (nearly 88% of the total) across the 16 venues, according to an analysis by Paris-based climate tech consultancy Greenly. The next largest sources are accommodation and stadium modernization.

Meanwhile, London-based Scientists for Global Responsibility and the non-governmental Environmental Defense Fund put the figure even higher, at nine million tonnes.

FIFA has committed itself to halving its climate emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, but this commitment applies to the organization as a whole, rather than to individual competitions. Little evidence of progress has emerged from net-zero tracking platforms. FIFA is expected to rely again on carbon offsets, as it did for Qatar 2022.

In 2023, the Swiss Fairness Commission –Switzerland’s self-regulatory body for advertising and communications, found FIFA’s claim that Qatar 2022 was the first fully carbon-neutral World Cup to be unsubstantiated.

Even before it is kicked, FIFA and the three Mexican host cities have already fouled the ball.