Today we launch Olympic Impact, a series investigating whether the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games can be the blueprint for sustainable major sporting events. Nat Barker sets out what to expect.

In this series we will examine in detail how Paris has sought to minimise the environmental footprint of the games and use it as a vehicle to drive improvements in the city.
Hearing from those involved in organising the games and those scrutinising, we'll consider the legacy of Paris 2024 ? is this a turning point that puts major sporting events on a more sustainable path"
Half the carbon of London and Rio
Friday will see the opening ceremony of the 33rd Olympiad float down a newly clean River Seine, if all goes to plan. It will be the first time the ceremony has been held outside a stadium ? but that will not be the only first at this Olympic and Paralympic Games. This will also be the first edition of the games organised to a carbon budget. Having moved away from early messaging pledging carbon neutrality, Paris 2024 has a target to emit no more than 1.58 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent ? halving the carbon footprint of London 2012 and Rio 2016.
If the target is met emissions will be even lower than for Tokyo 2020, which took place without overseas spectators as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been widely touted as the most environmentally friendly Olympics ever.
The most obvious consequence of this aim is the decision to avoid constructing numerou...