While all fans are looking forward to an exciting European Championship in Germany, to captivating matches and great emotions, The Generation Forest is also taking a somewhat critical look at the additional CO2 emissions that will be generated. After all, in addition to a lot of fun and enjoyment, a European Championship always has a negative impact on our environment.
For this reason, The Generation Forest Foundation, together with the climate protection cooperative The Generation Forest eG, has come up with a fundraising campaign that combines climate protection with the joys of the European Championships in a playful and positive way. Rainforest the size of a football pitch is to be planted for each of the 51 matches of the European Championship. From the first to the last game.
The aim of the campaign is to create 382,500 m2 of newly planted, permanent forest in the tropics. Each game would save 15 tonnes of CO2 per year, and around 150 tonnes of CO2 in the long term. All games together would enable around 76,500 tonnes of CO2 to be sequestered in the long term.
An important contribution! After all, additional emissions totalling around 490,000 tonnes of CO2 are expected as a result of the European Championship, as calculated by the Öko-Institut e.V. in an extensive study („Konzept- und Machbarkeitsstudie für eine ´klimaneutrale´ Ausrichtung der Fußball-Europameisterschaft der Herren 2024" - https://www.oeko.de/fileadmin/oekodoc/Klimaneutrale_EURO2024.pdf).
Especially in ecologically challenging times, this is not good news for the climate: flights, traffic, traffic jams, consumption and waste cause a lot of CO2 - despite positive efforts by the organisers to offset a large part of it.
The fundraising campaign offers a variety of fun ways to become active yourself: From donating an individual area, the penalty area, the centre circle or half of a pitch, to reforesting entire matches, specific matches, teams or venues, semi-finals (two matches/ football pitches) or quarter-finals (four matches/ football pitches), there are great opportunities to combine the love of football with the responsibility for climate and the planet. For fans and non-fans, for companies and clubs, betting groups and families. Everyone can shape a greener European Championship.
Forests will be created - not just trees.
A near-natural mixed forest based on the generation forest principle is being created in the Filo del Tallo project area of Generation Forest in Panama. This generation forest will not only remove large amounts of CO2 with different tree species, but also create species-rich and biodiverse habitats.
Anyone and any company can participate and donate:
https://em-regenwald.generationforestfoundation.com/
Links:
Generation forests with Sven Plöger and on ARD Weltspiegel:
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/wie-extrem-wird-das-wetter-sven-ploeger/die-macht-des-el-nino/swr/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzIwMjk4OTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODnPhlAGWXo
All funds received under the keyword "Anschlusstreffer für das Klima" will be channelled 100% into the charitable Generation Forest Foundation, Trostbrücke 1, Hamburg, as earmarked donations.
This foundation uses the donations received for the purchase and management of shares in The Generation Forest eG, Max-Brauer-Allee 218, Hamburg. The cooperative is a strong community of currently 7,600 members that have been facilitating the reforestation of biodiverse permanent forests in Panama in accordance with the Generation Forest principle since 2016.