At a Glance

Some 24 million seedlings have yet to be planted following the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. The seedlings were to be planted to offset carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of the games.

One highlight of the opening ceremony of the 2016Rio was theprocession of athletes marching proudly around Maracanã Stadium. Carried in the hand of each of the 11,000 athletes processing that August evening was a cartridge of soil bearing the seed of a Brazilian tree.

Olympic organizers called the procession," and the seedlings were touted as a way to offset carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of the games.

According to anin-depth titled "After the Flames," the plan was to take the seedlings carried by the athletes and plant them as part of an Athlete's Forest in the Deodoro neighborhood of Rio. In total, some 24 million trees were to be planted.

That never happened.

Instead, the seedlings remain housed in pots on a farm about 60 miles from Rio.

Meanwhile, some 12,000 trees planted in Olympic Park for the games are dying from a lack of care, and the blame game is in full swing.

Brazil's (TCU) released a reportthat reviewed the aftermath of the Olympics. It found that the mayor is blaming the organizing committee and the organizing committee is blaming the government.

"The planting of the 12,000 seedlings in the park is only a memory of a beautiful image in the Opening Ceremony," the TCU report said, according to ESPN. "The Rio 2016 committee made a promise to the world and has now been linked, morally, to this duty. To not plant the seeds would cause significant damage to the country's image."

Other planned environmental initiatives that were highlighted in the opening cities and targeted at leaving a lasting green legacy in the city were likewise left in the dust by the Olympic organizers, according to Deutsche Welle.

"If you take the Olympic opening event it was important messaging. The whole world was watching and that is great to frame the issue in this way," Rio sustainability activist Miguel Lago told DW, "but the city did not get more sustainable because of the Olympic Games – not at all."

Ahead of the games, the organizers committed to cleaning up the heavily polluted Guanabara Bay. Instead, competing sailors and windsurfers were warned against ingesting any of the water during competition.

Sustainability seemed to be thrown out the window, too, when organizers decided to build a new golf course for the games in the protectedMarapendi nature reserve instead of upgrading existing courses.

Still, there were some measures that contributed to reducing Rio's carbon footprint during the games. According to a , over 70 percent of the 200 sustainability suggestions were implemented and Rio 2016 "communicated openly about those that could not be implemented."

"Energy-efficient and low-carbon technologies were implemented in Brazil and other Latin American countries, reducing 2.2 million tons of carbon emissions and demonstrating the feasibility of low carbon production in agriculture and industry," the report notes.

It's unclear what will become of the seedlings. A planned event to plant them, featuring celebrities, athletes and officials,has yet to be organized, ESPN reports.