Environmental Watchdogs Allege "Greenwash" at UNEP Meeting

I've written some about the environment already, and I'm going to return to it now and for the next few posts, most likely.  It's not that I don't care about the pending unveiling of the mascot for the 2014 Winter Games, because I do (and who doesn't?).  It's just that effect of the massive construction projects in and around Sochi are shaping up to be the critical story of the next 3 years.  These projects, overseen by the Soviet-sounding Olympstroy, are already proving to be the one aspect of this project controversial enough to draw international scrutiny.  Yuri Trutnev, Russia's Environment and Natural Resources Minister, of course reports that everything is ship-shape down there in Sochi; no problems at all.  Now, you may be surprised to hear this, but not everybody agrees.

As I've mentioned before, the United Nations Environmental Programme was in Russia a couple of weeks ago to meet and greet, listen to the public, talk to environmental bigwigs overseeing the construction, as well as some international environmental watchdogs.  Well, apparently some environmentalists didn't want to play along.

In an article from the Moscow Times, Greenpeace accuses UNEP of a "greenwash."  Catchy, isn't it?  At any rate, both WWF and Greenpeace boycotted the process, and Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus (EWNC), that itch that neither the Russian government nor UNEP can scratch, left less than impressed.

Environment Watch North Caucasus, the main green pressure group in the region campaigning against the adverse environmental impact of Olympic construction projects, met with four delegates from the UNEP's Sochi group Sunday evening.

“We met with four experts from the UNEP,” said Suren Gazaryan, a spokesman for Environment Watch who was at the meeting, “but the organizing committee, which arranged the visit, did all it could to delay and limit the amount of time we spent with them,” including delaying announcing the meeting till the very last minute and timing it for the end of the last day of the delegations' visit.

Greenpeace Russia and the WWF boycotted the UNEP visit amid concerns that the inspections have become part of a so-called “greenwash” of the controversial project.

 The UNEP has sent a delegation to Sochi annually to inspect the environmental impact of the Olympic building sites.  But after an October 2010 visit, greens said the working group had “failed to establish a dialogue between officials and the public.” WWF Russia called on the UN group to “admit that attempts to make the Sochi Olympics environmentally friendly have failed.”

“It is difficult to say whether the UNEP is being manipulated or what. But we do not want to be part of a green PR for the Olympic projects,” Pyotr Gorbenko, managing director of WWF Russia, told The Moscow Times.

And so it goes, back and forth.  What I'm interested in seeing is how much traction statements from groups like WWF and Greenpeace on this topic gain internationally.  Generally speaking, and much to the IOC's liking, the Olympics don't tend to elicit negative reactions from the general public, despite the enormous costs that the hosting countries are expected to bear and the amount of that which is passed on to the taxpayer.  People tend to remember the athletes and the performances and, it could be argued, rightly so.  But scores and medals are the easy part; hopefully I'll be able to help you better understand how the sausage is made.