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According to a Swiss Carbon Management organisation, more than half of the teams playing in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have participated in a carbon-offset scheme to mitigate the impact of the event on the environment.

Working jointly, the South African environment ministry and the United Nations Environment Programme have launched a CO2 emissions offset project.

In total, every team participating in the World Cup is expected to produce approximately 6,000 tonnes of CO2, factoring in coaches and auxiliary members of the squads as well as the main players.

2010 World Cup CO2 emissions will total 2.7 million tons: eight times more than the carbon footprint of the previous World Cup held in Germany. These figures are according to the results from a pre-event assessment carried out through a partnership involving South Africa and Norway,

There are many reasons for this increase, for instance South Africa's geographical location meaning fans and players alike have had to make much longer journeys to get there. South Africa also remains largely reliant on fossil fuels as a source of energy.

Carbon offsetting is a process through which individuals and companies are able to reduce their carbon footprints by investing in carbon reduction projects across the globe. South Africa and the UN's World Cup carbon offsets project is linked with various different schemes similar to this.