| Summary/Abstract |
Understanding the carbon implications of mega sporting events (MSEs) is critical for the hosting country or city, if they are to tackle climate change challenges. Taking the case of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics (NYO), this study examines the impacts on the host's local carbon emissions during the ‘preparatory-hosting-after’ stages of a MSE. By adopting a synthetic control method (SCM) and logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) decomposition, the following findings are reached: (1) From 2010, when the city of Nanjing announced the decision to bid to host the NYO, the NYO increased the carbon emissions of Jiangsu (the province to which Nanjing belongs) in every year from 2010 to 2019. The total increase in the emissions caused by the NYO was approximately 584.63 million tons. That figure is 1.65 times the total carbon emissions of the United Kingdom in 2018. (2) The annual amount of increased emissions also rose during the preparatory and post stages of the NYO, but the amount of increased emissions during the hosting year was relatively lower, at 53.36 million tons. (3) The NYO improved the energy intensity of the industrial sector, and thereby partially decreased local carbon emissions. Conversely, the NYO induced continuous impacts on local per capita output, the energy intensity of the transportation sector, the scale and energy structure of the industrial sector, and thus promoted emissions, even after the games.
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