Tharoor, who was in Pune to flag of the sustainable transport rally on Saturday, said the CYG green council has planned a four-pronged approach to manage consumption of carbon-intensive energies during the games.

The aim, he said, is to avoid use of carbon-intensive energies, reduce usage of power, replace high-intensive sources with low intensive ones and offset the consumption with renewable sources.

"It is a positive thing to hold a major sporting event like the CYG, but because of the adverse impact on the environment, it also has its negatives. For example, during any mega sporting event, the influx of athletes, officials, spectators is big. Consequently, there is large-scale usage of land, increased waste generation, a rise in usage of electricity and transportation etc. We have to be conscious of the impact of all this and more on nature. The challenge is to ensure consumption neutrality during the games," said Tharoor.

"In fact, we are in the advanced stages of negotiations with a company which will offset the equivalent amount of energy consumed during the games with renewable sources of energy that will be generated elsewhere," he said.