People sit at the heart of every transformation needed within sport to move towards a healthier and more sustainable future.
Extreme weather is becoming more common and severe, with 2023 the warmest year on record globally. Climate impacts are also being acutely felt within sport, for example, heat risks to athletes at international sporting events and sports grounds flooded. Widespread and urgent action is needed to mitigate (reduce the causes) and adapt (adjust how people deal with the impacts) to climate change. While this undoubtedly includes technological solutions, profound societal and behaviour changes are also required (carbon footprints in rich countries must be cut by up to 95%), and people must be at the heart of effective climate action. Sport, like all sectors, will need to take wide-reaching climate action, and will face barriers as well as opportunities to achieving this. But sport also has a unique role to play in engaging people with climate change because of its influence in society and on behaviour.
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