Global policy discourse increasingly frames sport, leisure, and recreation as tools for advancing climate justice alongside education, health, and social cohesion.
While initiatives such as the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework highlight sport's potential to address the climate crisis, little is known about how SDP can foster meaningful climate action – defined as actions that contribute to transformative and equitable climate solutions that produce measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions and support systemic change, especially in the face of climate vulnerabilities structured by intersecting inequalities of class, race, gender, and post coloniality (IPCC, 2023). Indeed, research on the knowledge-to-action gap in climate change education underscores the importance of affective experiences and existential reflection as mediators between environmental learning and action. In this paper, we argue that physical culture – especially the use of outdoor adventure sports and recreation (OASR) – when deployed in the context of SDP, is potentially uniquely positioned to cultivate environmental identity through embodied, emotional engagement with nature. We further contend that – because SDP initiatives operate in social domains directly impacted by climate change – they are well positioned to advance climate justice. In this perspectives piece, we look across disciplines to explore the role of affective engagement and existential experience in sport as a pedagogical entry point for climate action, climate activism and climate justice. We conclude that SDP offers an unrealized space for socioemotional and behavioural learning – often neglected in climate change education – that can strengthen pathways from climate knowledge to climate action for climate justice.
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