Even nature “thanks” the participants of WYD. Thanks to them, but above all thanks to the organizing machine’s particular attentiveness to respecting creation, the event has had small impact on the environment.  This is not only due to their having made some strategic choices on the logistical and technical level. Unable to avoid the kind of pollution that comes from mass demonstrations like that of Madrid, the organizers have decided to compensate for it by contributing to environmental sustainability projects.

The formula is that of buying voluntary carbon credits, a tool referred to in the Kyoto Protocol, which is based on the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions – entrusted in the case of WYD Madrid to Zeroemissions of Abengoa, an international company which comes up with innovative technical solutions for sustainable development in the areas of energy and the environment –  and their contribution through economic aid to sustainable initiatives. This is an increasingly common practice in the organizing of large events: it was adopted, for example, at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and for various concerts. 

Under the agreement signed by the foundation Madrid Vivo, which collaborated with the organizers of this last event in Spain, the economic aid corresponding to WYD’s greenhouse emissions will be funneled into 5 projects, one for each continent: a field of wind energy in New Caledonia, a small hydropower plant in Honduras, a reforestation project in Uganda, and two projects for methane recovery in landfills in China and Turkey.