• The XXIV Winter Olympic Games will take place in Beijing, the capital of China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. The XIII Winter Paralympic Games will also be held at the same venue.
• The organisers have invested heavily in clean energy, sustainable mobility and emissions offsetting projects to reduce the impact of such a large event.
• Concerns remain, however, over the use of artificial snow and the possibility that human rights may be poorly respected in China.

Less than six months after the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the world's finest athletes are arriving in China for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing will be hosting the Olympic Games for the second time in less than twenty years, following the 2008 Summer edition. The Chinese capital will thus become the first city in history to have hosted both the Summer and the Winter Games.

Competitions will begin two days before the opening ceremony on 4 February in Beijing, with the first curling and ice hockey matches, and will conclude on 20 February with the closing ceremony. Not all events will be held in the capital; they will instead be spread across the surrounding mountain regions of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, which will host the competitions requiring more snow and mountainous terrain. For just over two weeks, the eyes of the world will be on the People's Republic as it attempts to host a global event during a pandemic while, at the same time, honouring its commitment to making the Games "green, inclusive, open and clean".

For Chinese president Xi Jinping, the Winter Olympics could therefore offer a valuable opportunity to reach a global audience and demonstrate that China can position itself as a superpower and leader in the fight against climate change. On the other hand, having the spotlight turned on itself has also prompted deeper scrutiny and, consequently, inevitable criticism — particularly regarding China's track record on human rights and environmental issues — criticism that has featured in numerous articles and news reports in the months leading up to the Games. In reality, scepticism about China's ability to host truly sustainable Winter Olympics remains high, not only regarding how well the nation can ensure a reduced ecological and material footprint, but also in terms of social justice, since both issues can be considered pillars of sustainability.

"Green" Winter Olympics?

Environmental sustainability has been an important part of Beijing's Olympic bid, with organisers highlighting the event's potential to act as a catalyst for reducing emissions and air pollution, offering sustainable mobility options and improving urban planning. One of the main promises made by China in 2015 as part of its bid was that it would deliver the first net-zero edition in history. To achieve this goal, organisers have worked hard to ensure that all Olympic venues are powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, that more than 700 hydrogen-powered vehicles are used, and that all excess emissions generated by the event are offset through initiatives such as reforestation projects in Zhangjiakou — which are said to have already had a significant impact on the region's reforestation.

On the subject of renewables, China is undoubtedly well placed to fulfil its promise. The People's Republic currently produces more solar panels and wind installations than any other nation in the world. Although its commitment to deriving 25 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2030 is considered insufficiently ambitious by its critics, it nevertheless remains a step in the right direction for a country that still relies on coal for more than 50 per cent of its energy demand.

Zhangjiakou, where many mountain events will be held, is located in the province surrounding Beijing, Hebei, which has invested in a new power facility capable of converting renewable energy and generating 14 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year — a figure comparable to Slovenia's annual consumption. In this context, the Winter Olympics are seen as a stage from which to showcase the enormous progress made in the country's energy transition and in tackling problems such as air pollution, given that dangerous levels of PM2.5 have been a source of concern for decades.

The combination of a proportional increase in renewable energy and measures adopted to bring local industries into compliance and limit their emissions led the Beijing administration to declare that national air quality targets had been met for the first time in 2021, with a 63 per cent reduction in the concentration of harmful PM2.5 particles between 2013 and 2021. While this represented an important step in the right direction and offered some reassurance to the athletes arriving for the Games, it must also be noted that today's levels remain nearly double the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

David Vance Wagner @vancewagner

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Incredible: Beijing gov't has announced that the city met China's air quality targets for all 6 key pollutants in 2021. Extraordinary progress that was almost unimaginable 10 years ago. sthjj.beijing.gov.cn/bjhrb/index/xx…

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Doubts remain nonetheless regarding the environmental sustainability credentials of Beijing 2022, also in light of the track record of previous Winter Olympics editions. The 2014 edition, held in Sochi, Russia, was judged one of the "least sustainable" in history by an independent impact assessment published in the journal Nature, which examined the serious damage inflicted on the Russian city during the construction of Olympic facilities and the high environmental costs of artificial snowmaking that plagued the event. Officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also expressed their concern about snow availability during Beijing 2022, referring in particular to the alpine skiing and slalom races to be held in Yanqing and the cross-country skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding events in Zhangjiakou: "They have very low annual snowfall levels, and for the Games they will rely entirely on artificial snow."

Also cause for concern is the fact that, in the winter of 2014, Beijing went without snow for 107 days (a figure exceeded on only two previous occasions); this year, meanwhile, the first snowfall arrived only on 14 January, three months late. More would be expected from a city hosting the Winter Olympics. Artificial snowmaking requires considerable amounts of energy — which officials say will come from renewable sources — and enormous volumes of water that could necessitate drawing on local water resources, exacerbating existing water scarcity problems, given that Beijing suffers from endemic water shortages. Cases have already been reported in which water was taken from local residents and farmers, and it is estimated that 220 million litres will be needed for the production of artificial snow and ice at Beijing 2022.

Douglas Wong @WongDouglas

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'#China could need as much as 2 million cubic meters of water — enough to fill 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools — to create enough fake snow to cover ski runs and access roads during the Games,' says Professor Carmen de Jong bloomberg.com/news/features/…

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Organisers insist that the water used for artificial snow will be drawn from special cisterns that collect mountain runoff and rain during the summer. "We are entirely self-sufficient and ecologically circular," Wang Jingxian, a member of the organising committee for the 2022 Games, tells Reuters. Nevertheless, not everyone is convinced. Carmen de Jong, a geographer at the University of Strasbourg, told the British newspaper Guardian that: "These could be the least sustainable Winter Olympics in history. These mountains have practically no natural snow […]. Staging events without the primary resource on which they depend is not only unsustainable, it is irresponsible."

Furthermore, doubts remain linked not only to the quantity of water and energy used during the Games, but also to the legacy that will be left to the area as a result of their being held in a region where it does not snow enough. If these venues establish themselves as ski destinations, the unsustainable use of artificial snow could continue into the future as well.

Beijing 2022: a question of rights

Staging a sustainable event is not solely a matter of environmental credentials, but also of social justice. One of the biggest stories in the months leading up to Beijing 2022 concerned human rights violations in the Asian country, which led several nations to announce a diplomatic boycott of the Games, whereby government officials will not attend events in China. The majority of media attention has focused on the Chinese government's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim ethnic group; according to a United Nations estimate, more than one million people, predominantly Uyghurs or members of other Muslim minority groups, have been detained in re-education camps in Xinjiang. There are also concerns related to forced evictions as a result of the construction of Olympic buildings or other Games-related infrastructure, including renewable energy projects. In a recent statement, Amnesty International expressed its concern over "forced evictions, illegal land seizures, and the loss of livelihoods linked to the loss of land" connected to wind and solar development plans — a problem that could also manifest itself in China with the realisation of large-scale renewable energy projects.

William Yang ✓ @WilliamYang120

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China has vowed #Beijing2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of facilities to increase capacity -- but activists warn ordinary people are being exploited by "land grabs" in the process. france24.com/en/live-news/2…

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China has introduced measures to help local communities during the construction of renewable energy infrastructure — for example, linking the installation of photovoltaic plants to poverty-reduction programmes, whereby residents receive free electricity when solar panels are installed on their homes. Although the initial aim of the programme wa