South Africa will be green during the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. The government will continue to raise awareness on water and energy conservation.

Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday that waste management and transport mobility would also be improved.

"We are committed to ensuring that South Africa learns from the Green Goal experience which vastly reduced the environmental impact of the 2006 World Cup in Germany," he said.

He was speaking in Germany where he held discussions with Germany's Federal Environment Minister, the European Environment Commissioner and key role-players in the German Green Goal initiative.

The Green Goal initiative - is one of the most comprehensive programmes seeking to reduce the environmental impact of sport.

Green Goal uses a number of innovative techniques to reduce its impact on climate change.

According to the department, the Green Goal succeeded in decreasing electricity emissions from an estimated 7, 540 tons to 2,490 tons and transport emissions from 90,000 tons to 73,000 tons.

The initial Greening 2010 workshop in SA, he said, last month discussed the possibility of including a carbon offset campaign as part of the 2010 Greening Campaign.

"It is our intention to make use of the 2010 Greening Campaign and its carbon offset legacy project to promote the finding of African solutions to African challenges," he said.

This, Mr van Schalkwyk said, these included the use of renewable energy at stadiums and greater use of public and non-motorised transport by fans, resulting in substantially reduced greenhouse gas emission.

The South African projects that benefited from Green Goal were a sewage gas project in Sebokeng and a saw-dust fuelled and fruit-drying furnace in Letaba.