New report explores how psychology can accelerate climate action in sport

November 19, London: People sit at the heart of every transformation needed within sport to move towards a healthier and more sustainable future. Therefore the exploration of insights from social psychology, such as understanding people’s values, overcoming misperceptions about what other people think, and the role of leadership and social norms can offer sports organisations a deeper understanding of how to create change.

“What’s Stopping Us? Applying psychology to accelerate climate action in sport” is a new report released today, brought to you by Sport Positive, UNFCCC Sports for Climate Action and the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), that explores these themes, with a view to illuminating a path forward.

The report’s recommendations, informed by the psychology of environmental behaviour change, call on the sports industry to take a series of actions, to acknowledge and address its environmental impacts, to lead by example and to adopt multiple roles to promote wider social and political transformation.

The report highlights the different ways in which people engage with climate change, outlining research on values, trust, emotions and collective action. It also highlights evidence about behaviour change within organisations, including social and structural barriers and how interventions should be tailored to different groups. While there are barriers to climate action in sport, there are also many ways to enable change, and sports organisations have several roles and opportunities to do so.

Speaking about the launch of the report, its lead author and researcher in CAST at Cardiff University, Briony Latter said, “With the growing interest in sport and climate change, we’re pleased to share these insights with the sector. There’s a lot of relevant research from within psychology that sports organisations and decision-makers can use to leverage the influence that sport has and lead on climate action.”

Sport Positive founder and CEO, Claire Poole commented; “Our core belief has always been  that sport has an unparalleled influence to tackle climate change. We approached CAST with the concept for this report, as we believe a deeper understanding of what drives human behaviour change sits at the heart of a more urgent approach to instigate climate action inside sports organisations and beyond.”

“Behavioural change is about our ability to think differently, feel differently and understand our relationships differently. To address climate change we need to be open to these factors. This report is a good starting point for sport to do just that.” shared Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, Initiatives Lead at UNFCCC.