Like many of you, we at GHGMI are also excited about the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A number of GHGMI staff are based in host cities, with the topic coming up in conversations throughout this past month. With the tournament coming to an end this week, we decided to have a little fun combining our love of fútbol with greenhouse gas mitigation.
2026 World Cup Climate Impact
This year’s competition is expected to be the largest—and likely the most carbon-intensive—in the tournament’s history. Recent analysis cited by Reuters estimates that the 2026 tournament could generate approximately 7.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, more than double the footprint of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which emitted 3.63 million tCO₂e (according to the official FIFA figure).
Why such a difference? Instead of the typical 32-team format (used since 1998), 48 teams are competing with a total of 104 matches (compared to 64 in Qatar). And for the first 72 years of the tournament (1930 to 1998), the World Cup was strictly a single-country event. This year, the event will take place in 16 host cities spread across an entire continent, with teams, media, and millions of fans expected to travel between matches. Transportation alone is predicted to account for the overwhelming majority of those emissions. This reflects both an expanded tournament format and the event’s geographic scale.
The World Cup & Climate Action
The environmental implications of mega sporting events have received increasing attention in recent years, and the 2026 tournament is no exception. Discussions typically focus on air travel, stadium operations, infrastructure, and the challenge of reconciling global sporting spectacles with international climate goals. Yet the World Cup also presents an opportunity to examine a different dimension of climate action—one that extends beyond the tournament itself.
Every nation competing in this year’s World Cup is also participating in another global endeavor: implementing the Paris Agreement. While the tournament will ultimately produce a single champion on the field, the participating countries are simultaneously engaged in a much longer-term effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen resilience to climate impacts, and transition toward lower-carbon economies.
Viewed through that lens, the World Cup offers a unique opportunity to reflect on climate leadership. If climate action were the competition, which countries would be leading the table?
A Different Kind of Scoreboard
Answering the question above is more complicated than it first appears, as climate performance cannot easily be reduced to a single metric. A ranking based solely on emissions reductions tends to favor countries that industrialized decades ago and have already undergone major economic transitions. Conversely, a ranking based only on climate pledges may reward ambition on paper while overlooking the difficult work of implementation.
The Paris Agreement itself recognizes this complexity. Countries enter the process with vastly different economic circumstances, development priorities, emissions profiles, and institutional capacities. As a result, climate leadership is perhaps best understood not as a competition to achieve the lowest emissions, but as a combination of ambition, implementation, measurable progress, and sustained commitment over time.
This piece is deliberately narrow. It’s about climate policy, not FIFA’s governance, sponsorship arrangements, or the serious off-field allegations involving some competing players, all of which deserve scrutiny elsewhere, just not in this analysis.
For that reason, this article does not attempt to create a definitive ranking of all 48 participating nations. Instead, it highlights several countries whose climate stories offer useful lessons about what leadership can look like in practice. Some have earned recognition for the strength of their climate commitments. Others have demonstrated notable progress despite more limited resources. And, still others, provide examples of how policy consistency and long-term planning can produce meaningful results.
#1 🏆 Climate Cup Champion: Morocco (Group C)
When discussions turn to climate leadership, attention often focuses on wealthy countries with mature institutions and decades of experience in environmental policymaking. Morocco offers a compelling alternative narrative.
According to Climate Action Tracker, Morocco is among a relatively small number of countries receiving an overall rating of “Almost Sufficient,” placing it among the stronger performers globally. Even more notably, its current policies and actions are rated “1.5°C compatible” when evaluated against its fair share contribution to global climate action. While no rating system is perfect, this distinction reflects a combination of policy ambition and implementation that is uncommon among participating World Cup nations.
Morocco strengthened its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2021, increasing both its unconditional and conditional emissions reduction targets. The country has also invested heavily in renewable energy infrastructure, including the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex, one of the world’s largest solar facilities. Over the past decade, renewable energy has become a central pillar of Morocco’s development strategy, reducing dependence on imported fuels while supporting broader economic objectives.
What makes Morocco’s progress particularly noteworthy is the context in which it has occurred. Unlike many countries frequently cited as climate leaders, Morocco has pursued this transition without the financial resources available to wealthier nations. Its experience demonstrates that ambitious climate action is not exclusively the domain of high-income economies.
This is not to suggest that Morocco has solved every climate challenge. Coal remains part of its electricity mix, and climate analysts continue to raise concerns about future fossil gas development. Nevertheless, the country’s overall trajectory illustrates how emerging economies can combine climate ambition with tangible implementation. If climate action were the competition, Morocco would be a deserving contender for the trophy.
#2 ⚽ Golden Boot for Climate Momentum: Colombia (Group K)
Football’s Golden Boot recognizes the tournament’s top scorer. Our climate version celebrates momentum, the countries that are steadily advancing climate action through policy development, institutional strengthening, and implementation.
Colombia stands out because of the breadth of climate-related measures it has pursued over the past decade. The country has adopted a carbon tax, strengthened climate legislation, expanded renewable energy development, and improved climate governance frameworks. It has also taken steps to integrate climate considerations into national planning and development strategies.
Perhaps most significantly, Colombia’s climate efforts intersect with one of the world’s most complex land-use challenges: reducing deforestation while balancing economic development, agricultural production, and social priorities. Progress has not always been linear, and deforestation remains a major concern. Yet Colombia’s experience highlights the reality that climate action often unfolds within broader social, economic, and political contexts.
Climate Action Tracker currently rates Colombia’s climate commitments as “Insufficient,” underscoring the work that remains to be done. However, the purpose of this recognition is not to suggest that Colombia has already achieved climate leadership. Rather, it reflects a country that continues to build the policies, institutions, and governance systems necessary to support long-term climate action.
In many respects, Colombia’s story is one of persistence. The country’s experience illustrates that meaningful progress is often measured not only by outcomes, but also by the sustained effort required to achieve them.
That persistence will soon face a real test. In June 2026, Colombians elected Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing populist, as their next president, ending the run of the more left-leaning Petro administration that championed much of the country’s recent climate legislation. Whether the incoming government sustains that trajectory in deforestation policy and carbon pricing remains an open question, and one that will continue to unfold long after this World Cup’s final whistle.
#3 👀 Rising Star: Uruguay (Group H)
If there is one climate story among this year’s World Cup participants that deserves broader recognition, it may be Uruguay.
Over the last little more than a decade, Uruguay transformed its electricity sector into one of the cleanest in the world. Beginning in the early 2010s, the country implemented a strategy to rapidly expand renewable electricity generation through a combination of policy certainty, public-private investment, and long-term planning. The results have been remarkable.
Today, the vast majority of Uruguay’s electricity comes from renewable sources, including wind, hydropower, biomass, and solar energy. According to the International Energy Agency, this transition occurred without sacrificing reliability and while helping reduce dependence on imported fuels.
What distinguishes Uruguay’s experience is not simply the outcome, but the speed at which it was achieved. Around the world, governments continue to debate how quickly energy systems can transition away from fossil fuels. Uruguay provides a real-world example of what is possible when political commitment, investment frameworks, and regulatory certainty align around a common objective.
That transformation may already be spreading beyond the power sector. In the first five months of 2026, electric vehicles outsold gasoline-powered cars in Uruguay for the first time, with EVs capturing more than 40% of new car sales by May, up from a small niche just a year earlier. The shift is being driven by the same clean electricity that powers Uruguay’s grid, paired with some of the highest gasoline prices in the region.
Like every country, Uruguay still faces the harder work of decarbonizing its broader economy and building climate resilience, though its early shift in transportation suggests the same policy formula that transformed its grid may be starting to repeat itself on the road.
Honorable Mentions
Several other participating nations deserve recognition for their contributions to climate action.
Norway (Group I) remains a global leader in electric vehicle adoption and climate policy innovation, although its continued role as a major oil and gas exporter underscores the tensions that often accompany climate leadership.
Switzerland (Group B) consistently performs well across a range of climate governance indicators and has established robust institutional frameworks for implementing climate policy.
Germany (Group E) continues to play a significant role in the global energy transition, accelerating renewable energy deployment while navigating the challenges of decarbonizing a large industrial economy.
These examples emphasize an important point: climate leadership rarely fits neatly into a single category. Countries often demonstrate leadership in one area while continuing to face challenges in another. There are no flawless performers in this competition.
No Team Is Perfect
Morocco continues to rely in part on coal-fired electricity generation. Norway remains a major fossil fuel exporter. Germany faces ongoing industrial decarbonization challenges. Colombia continues to grapple with deforestation pressures. Uruguay’s success in renewable electricity does not automatically translate into a fully decarbonized economy.
These apparent contradictions are not exceptions; they’re characteristic of climate action itself. Every country is navigating its own set of economic, social, political, and technological constraints. Progress is rarely linear, and success is seldom absolute.
Climate leadership is, therefore, best understood not as a permanent designation, but as an ongoing process of setting goals, implementing policies, learning from setbacks, and continually increasing ambition. This principle sits at the heart of the Paris Agreement, which was designed around the idea of continuous improvement rather than a single finish line.
The Final Whistle Never Blows
The 2026 World Cup will eventually crown a champion. One team will lift the trophy, celebrate under a shower of confetti, and secure its place in football history.
Climate action operates on a different timeline.
There is no final whistle, no knockout round, and no championship match. Instead, there is a collective effort spanning decades—one that requires countries to continually strengthen commitments, improve implementation, and adapt to new challenges as they emerge
The irony of the 2026 World Cup is that it may ultimately be remembered as the most carbon-intensive tournament ever staged. Yet it also brings together dozens of countries that are each, in their own way, attempting to address the challenge that makes those emissions matter. Perhaps that is the most interesting competition taking place this year. And unlike football, every country remains in the tournament.
This article is not intended to be a formal ranking of World Cup participants. The examples highlighted draw on publicly available assessments from organizations including Climate Action Tracker, the International Energy Agency, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and other international sources. Countries were selected based on a combination of climate ambition, implementation, measurable progress, and broader policy trajectory rather than any single metric.
Sources and Further Reading
- Reuters: Climate cost of expanded World Cup under scrutiny as emissions set to soar (June 2026)
- Climate Action Tracker – Morocco Country Assessment
- Climate Action Tracker – Country Ratings and Methodology
- International Energy Agency – Uruguay Country Profile
- International Energy Agency – Uruguay Electricity Profile
- UNFCCC – Paris Agreement Overview
- UNFCCC – Nationally Determined Contributions Registry
- World Resources Institute – Climate Watch Data Explorer
- International Energy Agency – Renewables Data and Analysis
- Data Hub — Each World Cup’s carbon footprint — and why 2026 breaks the chart
- Al Jazeera — Celebration, shock and scepticism follow Colombia’s presidential election
- Congress.gov/CRS — Colombia’s 2026 Presidential Election
- Rio Times Online — Electric Cars Outsell Gasoline in Uruguay for the First Time
- CleanTechnica — Uruguay EV Sales Report: ICEV Sales Start Melting Down as BEVs Surpass 40% Share in May!
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