Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 1
Playing
Against the Clock:
Global Sport, the Climate
Emergency and the Case
For Rapid Change
David Goldblatt
Playing Against the Clock 2
Although some professional leagues are
returning to empty stadia, the longer
term fate of mass sporting crowds is
opaque. Yet devastating as this has been,
something even more problematic is
waiting in the wings for the sporting circus.
Climate change is touching every aspect
of human life and global sport is no
exception: in 2019, the Rugby World Cup
was disrupted by unprecedented pacic
typhoons; in early 2020, the Australian
Tennis Open was disrupted by the smoke
blowing in from the country’s devastating
bush res. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were
forced to move long distance running
events north of the capital as the city’s
sweltering summer weather now makes
them impossible to run.
Coronavirus is not climate change, but
there are a number of clear lessons
from the current crisis: take the science
seriously and assume the worst-case
scenario can happen, act now not later,
and act radically. The international
community in the form of the Paris Climate
agreements, is committed to limiting
global heating to 2°C with the ambition of
going further to keep temperatures below
1.5°C, and achieving carbon neutrality by
2050. However, the IPCC, whose job it is to
advise governments, argues that if we are
to mitigate the worst aspects of climate
change then we need to aim for the
1.5°C limit, and make most of our carbon
reduction in the next decade. In 2018,
they concluded that this meant ‘rapid, far-
reaching and unprecedented changes in
Introduction:
Playing against the clock
Like every other industry and cultural sector, global sport has
been brought to a shuddering halt by the coronavirus pandemic;
leagues and competitions have been in suspended animation,
mega events from the Tokyo Olympics to Euro 2020 have been
postponed, the suspension of ticket sales and broadcasting deals
have placed many institutions and their sta in penury.
CONTENTS
Introduction: Playing 2
against the clock
1. The stadium is on re! 4
The impact of climate
change on global sport
2. Putting up a big score: 10
Sport’s contribution to
climate change
3. Playing catch up: Global sporting 14
federations and environmental policy
4. Conclusions: No normal sport 20
in an abnormal world
Appendices 23
Endnotes 38
Acknowledgements 41
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 3
all aspects of society.’ If sport moved on
this agenda, what kind of changes would
it make?
In Section 1, The Stadium’s on Fire! I
review the many ways in which climate
change is already taking its toll on
global sport, and the scale of the risks
and diculties ahead. Needless to say,
it’s not looking good: climatological and
economic demise for winter sports
awaits; heatwaves and heat strokes for
players and public alike, extreme weather
that oods stadiums and grassroots
playing elds; sea level rises that will
inundate football grounds and sweep
away golf links.
Sport is not just a victim of change,
however, but an important contributor too.
The IOC has a carbon footprint close to
that of Barbados, global football’s is even
larger. Sporting events are responsible for
massive levels of aviation, carbon heavy
stadium construction, and mountains
of unrecycled garbage, all making a
signicant contribution to the catastrophe
now engulng us.
If the sports world is to make its own
contribution to climate change action,
then it needs to acknowledge its own role
in creating the problem and radically
reduce its carbon footprint, and thus it
needs to know how much carbon it is
actually producing. No one currently
knows, and the research that has been
done on dierent sporting events and
institutions is very patchy. In Section 2:
Putting up a Big Score, I work with what
is available and oer my best estimates
of global sport’s carbon emissions, which,
if the order of magnitude I had calculated
is correct, make sport the equivalent of
nations as large and populous as Angola
or Tunisia, and that is at the low end of
estimates.
The sports world, to its credit, has not
been entirely oblivious to environmental
issues over the last quarter of a century.
The IOC, FIFA, and the more innovative
global and national federations, leagues
and clubs, have begun to take notice and
even, on occasion, act. The UN has now
included sport in its global climate action
framework and is aiming for carbon
neutrality for sport by 2050. However,
as even our cursory survey in Section 3,
Playing Catch Up, shows, the state of
sport’s environmental commitment and
governance is woefully inadequate. Only
a tiny fraction of the world’s thousands of
sporting bodies, federations, tournaments,
leagues and clubs have signed up to the
UN Sport for Climate Action Framework,
even fewer have actual carbon
targets and plans to deliver on these
commitments. At the same time, the petro-
chemical and aviation industries have
a huge foothold in sport through their
multiple global sponsorships.
We are in extra time already. The Paris
Agreements and the UN Sport for Climate
Action Framework think we still have 30
years on the clock and we can just leave
the team to sort it out by 2050, but as the
IPCC has argued, we really only have
a decade or so to pull this game out
of the hat. So the time is now and the
world of sport needs to begin massive
and immediate carbon reductions. In
the Conclusion: No Normal Sport in
an Abnormal World, I outline some
suggestions for beginning this process.
Playing Against the Clock 4
Doing so is a matter of money, politics,
and elite administration, of course, but
it is also a matter of mass mobilisation,
behavioural change and emotional
commitment. We are not going to come
anywhere near our global carbon
reduction targets without a transformation
in our everyday habits of production and
consumption, without decarbonisation
becoming the common sense of every day
action, and without a shot of hope that we
are not too late in starting. Sport’s social
reach could help catalyse the former,
its emotional currencies could inform
the later. As the great New York Yankee
catcher Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till
it’s over.”
1. The Stadium is on re! The
impact of climate change on
global sport
In the bid document for the Tokyo 2020
Olympics, the organisers blithely claimed
that the city had “many days of mild and
sunny weather,” during the proposed
games’ timetable in late July and early
August. This would provide, they wrote,
“an ideal climate for athletes to perform
at their best.”
1
Maybe that was true back
in 1964, when the city last hosted the
games, but that Olympics took place in
October and there has been nearly half a
century of rising temperatures since. Thus,
in July 2018, as the city sweltered in record
levels of humidity and heat, at its peak
touching 41°C, and experienced dozens
of deaths from heat stroke, the plan to run
the marathon and distance walking events
at a similar time of year were sharply
questioned. Yuriko Koike, Mayor of Tokyo,
when quizzed on the matter responded
by pointing to the wet towel wrapped
around her neck, “This will make you feel
cooler if you wear it. I would like to use
things like this.” Since then the organising
committee, apparently dissatised with the
towel solution, has toyed with starting the
events in the middle of the night, spraying
the entire course with water, asking
businesses on the route to turn on their air
conditioning and open their doors, before
nally and thankfully abandoning the
charade and shifting the marathon and
the distance walking events to Sapporo,
over a 1,000 kilometres north.
2
Tokyo 2020 is, of course, not the only
sporting organisation that has tried to
remain oblivious to the threats of climate
change, and to prevaricate when faced
by them. Nor will it be the last to have
to bow to reality and shift its schedules.
To paraphrase Greta Thunberg, “The
stadium is on re!”, and no amount of
air conditioning and wet towels is going
to deal with it. Rising temperatures,
prolonged periods of drought, forest res,
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 5
new patterns of precipitation, extreme
storms and rising seas levels are all,
already making their presence felt in sport,
and there will a lot more of this to come.
Doing something about it requires that we
stare these threats in the eye, right now.
Rising temperatures and
winter sports
Climate change is, of course, not uniform,
but one almost universal consequence
of our current course is that average
temperatures will rise everywhere, and in
mountainous regions, home to most winter
sports, that will mean less snow, falling
less often, and melting more quickly. The
organisers of the 2010 Vancouver winter
games wrote that, “the warmest weather on
record… challenged our ability to prepare
elds of play for athletes in the venues
at Cypress Mountains.”
3
Sochi 2014 was
warmer still. Many competitors complained
about the lack of snow, and the slow, wet,
heavy snow that was available was dicult
to manoeuvre on. These poor course
conditions meant that most medal winners
came from amongst the rst ten athletes
to start in each competition, who had the
huge advantage of racing on drier snow
that was quickly degraded for those that
followed them. In Alpine skiing, freestyle
skiing and snowboarding events there
was, compared to the 2010 games, a ve
per cent drop in athletes actually nishing
their event, and a nine per cent increase in
competitor injuries.
4
The Sochi Paralympics
saw a six fold increase in injury rates
compared to Vancouver.
5
Sochi is unlikely to hold another winter
games. Indeed, according to predictions
made by researchers at the University of
Waterloo, it is just one of many former
hosts that are unlikely, for climatological
reasons, to be able to do so. Of nineteen
prior locations, only ten will still be reliable
winter sports hosts in 2050, and just six
in 2080.
6
Heat waves, athlete
health and sporting
performance
In January 2018, England cricket Captain
Joe Root was hospitalised at the end
of the fourth day of play in that year’s
fourth Ashes test match. He was unable to
continue batting the next day and was laid
low by a combination of gastroenteritis
and searing 40 degree temperatures.
There is more of this on the way. The
heatwave that swept across the northern
hemisphere in summer 2019 saw the
cancellation of the New York Triathlon,
other running events, and many horse
races in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania
and Kentucky, as temperatures threatened
human and equine health alike. At both
the Women’s World Cup in France, and the
African Cup of Nations in Egypt, additional
water breaks during matches were
introduced in sweltering conditions.
7
The physiology of overheating is complex,
but once you start hitting 33 to 35
centigrade and you are playing sport,
it’s all bad news, and there are going
to be a lot more days like that in the
global sporting calendar in the next few
decades. Memory, eye hand coordination,
and concentration all start suering,
then there are the heat cramps, the heat
exhaustion, and the heat stroke. When
Playing Against the Clock 6
you combine these kinds of temperatures
with increasing humidity, which will be an
increasing reality for much of the world
the impact on sport and public health is
going to be devastating.
8
The Australian cricket authorities are
one of the few sports organisations to
be suciently worried about future heat
waves that they have commissioned
research on the subject. Looking at
grassroots cricket, the Red Clis Cricket
Association in the Mildura region has,
over the last forty years, experienced an
average temperature increase of 2.7°C
during its matches and, can now expect
at the height of the season ve and half
more days during which temperatures
will exceed 38°C compared to 1980.
This kind of weather is already forcing
the foreshortening of games and even
requiring match cancellations. At the very
pinnacle of the game, the traditional
Melbourne Boxing Day Test has got some
fearsome days ahead of it. In the coming
decades, the city is likely to experience an
average of 26 days that exceed 35°C with
high summer maximums of 50°C. Other
test match hosts, like Adelaide and Perth,
will see a 60 per cent increase in 40°C
plus days by 2030. Calls have already
gone out to shift the Boxing Day Test to
November or March.
9
The Australian and US Tennis Opens have
given us a very clear sense of what sport
in these kinds of temperatures is going
to look like. The 2014 Australian Open
was played in the middle of a harsh heat
wave that saw four consecutive days of
temperatures above 41°C. Under old
hot weather rules the tournament would
have been stopped, but recent changes
that allowed for play to continue if
humidity was suciently low prevailed.
The organisers were happy with this,
the players less so. Frank Dancevic
actually began hallucinating on court
before vomiting and departing, one of
a record nine players that retired during
the rst round of play. One of them, Ivan
Dodig, recalled that on court he was
thinking “I could maybe even die.” Daniel
Gimeno-Traver carried o a ball boy who
collapsed in the heat, Caroline Wozniacki
saw her plastic water bottles melt, as
did Wilfred Tsonga’s sneakers. Number
13 seed, John Isner, thought the wind on
court was like, “when I open the oven and
the potatoes are done.” During the whole
tournament over 1,000 fans were treated
for heat exhaustion.
10
Things were even hotter at the 2018
US Open where temperatures on court
peaked at 49°C. Ocials mandated the
rst use of the tournament’s extreme heat
policy, allowing more and longer breaks
during matches. Nonetheless, ve players
retired from matches for heat-related
reasons. One of those, Richard Berankis,
remarked, “They should have cancelled
the matches. It was not healthy… We are
t, but this was too much. It is dangerous
out there. The ATP doesn’t have a heat
rule but they should stop the matches.
They will not make a change until
someone dies.”
11
Drought
One inevitable consequence of more hot
weather is less rain, and in many parts of
the world that means more droughts. So
far, cricket has been amongst the worst
Figure 1. UK policy interventions
to change smoking behaviour
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 7
eected sports. In 2016, for example,
thirteen 13 IPL games were moved from
Maharashtra due to the worst drought
for 100 years. More recently, as water
shortages continued, the Mumbai high
court forbade the Maharashtra Cricket
Association from receiving water from the
Pavana dam for its matches in Pune.
12
The prolonged drought in Cape Town in
2018 saw water use at sports grounds,
professional and amateur, severely
restricted. The visiting Indian cricket team
was told to shower for no more than 90
seconds while club and school cricket
was cancelled half way through season
across the whole Western Cape.
13
Reports
of pitches cracking were widespread.
14
Droughts also eect rivers’ rates of ow.
Lower water ow will have an impact
on multiple riverine sports (canoeing
for example) both in terms of sporting
performance and the cleanliness of water.
Fires and air pollution
Another joker in the climate change
pack is re. Many habitats, like the
Australian bush, need periodic res to
clear dead wood, germinate seeds and
return nutrients to the soil. However, these
ecological systems are being turned into
unstoppable conagrations overwhelmed
by longer periods of drought, hotter and
longer summers, and large scale and
inappropriate human developments. The
scale of the res produced in the last few
years has begun to impact on the world of
sport.
The 2020 Australian Tennis Open was
played with air quality so poor that
players were struggling to breathe on
court, while a violent coughing t forced
Dalalia Jakupovic to retire from the
qualifying competition. New South Wales
spinner Steve O’Keefe, playing in Sydney
at the time, described breathing the air
while playing cricket, “like smoking 80
cigarettes a day.”
15
Even without forest
res, breathing the air while playing
sport can be a real problem. During a
peak air pollution episode in Delhi in
2017 cricketers playing in the India v Sri
Lanka game were vomiting on the pitch,
necessitating repeated breaks in play
and the installation of oxygen cylinders
in their dressing rooms. England may not
boast pollution levels quite on the scale
of India’s mega cities, but it remains the
case that ten county cricket grounds have
pollution levels that exceed World Health
Organisation (WHO) recommendations.
Increasing temperatures also lead to
higher levels of ozone at ground level
which has a serious impact on pulmonary
functioning. Air pollution researchers have
found that high exposures diminish the
athletic ability of football players, and the
quality of baseball ocial’s judgements.
16
Storms, rains and event
cancellation
Extreme weather is not conned to hot
and dry seasons. On the contrary, the last
thirty years have seen a steady increase in
the numbers of hurricanes and storms, and
an increase in their average severity, while
many parts of the world are experiencing
greater levels of precipitation, and new
geographical and seasonal patterns of
rainfall.
Playing Against the Clock 8
Caribbean cricket has, perhaps, been the
sport most severely impacted by these
shifts. In 2017 James Ronald Webster
Park in Anguilla was seriously damaged
by Hurricane Irma, and just two weeks
later Windsor Park cricket stadium in
Dominica was devastated by the category
5 Hurricane Maria.
17
In 2019, Typhoon
Hagabis came ashore in Japan with such
torrential rain and winds that three games
at the Rugby World Cup were cancelled.
Less apocalyptic in scale but even more
disruptive was Storm Ciara in 2020 which
saw the cancellation, in England, of one
Premier League game, six Women’s
Super League matches and widespread
postponements in Dutch football and the
top two levels of Belgian football.
18
Less spectacular than hurricane and
storms, normal wind patterns will also
be subject to change, with implications
for sailing and windsurng that are
already being registered. Simultaneously,
a general increase in the level of
precipitation is playing havoc with
sporting schedules. In English cricket,
for example, 27 per cent of England’s
home One Day Internationals since 2000
were played with reduced overs because
of rain disruptions, and the number
of rain aected matches has doubled
since 2011; 5 per cent of matches have
been abandoned altogether over the
last decade. Glamorgan County Cricket
Club, always the wettest outpost of the
game, has experienced even greater
precipitation in the last twenty years. 1,300
hours of play, were lost to rain between
2000 and 2016, which is equivalent to
217 days in total and more than a dozen
a season. In addition, the club’s grounds
have been ooded six times. Across the
whole county championship, 175 days
play has been lost in ve of the last ten
years.
19
Even English football, a game
not unused to rainy playing conditions,
saw more than twenty football league
xtures cancelled in the 2015/16 season.
20
This kind of weather doesn’t only aect
professional sport, but amateur and
grassroots sport as well. In England in
2014, the average grassroots pitch lost
ve weeks per season to bad weather,
and a third of these pitches lost between
two and three months in a season.
21
Sea level rises, land
erosion and ooding
Beaches are amongst our most important
natural sports elds. Sea level rises and
the inevitable land erosion that goes
with them threaten professional and
recreational sport alike. For example, the
islands and archipelagos of the south
Pacic are amongst the landscapes
most threatened by sea level rises, and
their rich rugby cultures, nurtured on
their beaches, are equally imperilled.
22
California’s beaches and their surng
culture are also looking insecure. One
recent study predicted that 18 per cent
of the state’s most popular breaks will be
lost by 2050, another 16 per cent will be in
decline, and that two thirds of all beaches
in the southern half of California will be
gone by the of end century.
23
In more immediate danger from sea level
rises and coastal erosion are seaside
golf links. The R&A reports that one in
six of the British Open championship
courses, including St Andrews, Troon and
Carnoustie, are unlikely to last out the
century. Scotland’s Montrose golf course,
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 9
one of the ve oldest in the world where
records of the game date back to 1592,
has been forced to sacrice its third tee,
to provide sucient rock defences for the
even more threatened rst and second
holes. It expects to lose more in the near
future. The Royal North Devon golf club,
entirely ooded by Storm Deirdre in 2018,
has seen the eighth hole disappear into
the shingle beach. The golf courses of even
Donald Trump – the climate denier in chief
– are taking action, like Doonsberg in the
Republic of Ireland where the organisation
has sought planning permissions to build
a huge rock barrier to protect three of its
holes from sea level rises.
24
In 2015, English football got a glimpse
of the future when the torrential rain
accompanying Storm Desmond saw
Carlisle United’s Brunton Park ooded
and the club forced out of the stadium for
seven weeks, at considerable nancial
cost.
25
There really is going to be more of
this in sport. Using mapping technology
and mainstream climate change and sea
level models, we can see that Bordeaux’s
Matmut Atlantiq stadium will, by 2050, be
completely ooded on an annual basis,
while Werder Bremen’s Weserstadion
can expect annual partial oods. In
the United States the NFL’s Jacksonville
Jaguars and their TIAA Bank Field, and
the NBA’s Miami Heat and their American
Airlines Arena, can expect the same. The
New York Giants & New York Jets’ MetLife
Stadium and the New York Mets’ Citi
Arena will be completely ooded every
year. In Canada, the Edmonton Oilers’
Rogers Place and Toronto FC’s BMO Field
will be part ooded on an annual basis.
However, this is as nothing to the fate
awaiting the football stadiums of England
and the Netherlands.
26
Of the 92 league teams in England, 23,
almost one in four, can expect partial or
total annual ooding of their stadiums
by 2050. The four under threat in the
current Premier League are Southampton’s
St Marys, Norwich’s Carrow Road,
Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and West
Ham’s Olympic Stadium. Seven are at
risk in the Championship including Hull
City and Cardi City’s grounds which will
both be entirely under water by 2050.
Middlesborough’s Riverside, which will
itself avoid ooding, will nonetheless
require a otilla of boats to get fans
to the ground across the wide-ooded
plains of the city. Doncaster, one of ve
clubs at risk in League One, will suer
the same fate. League Two will also see
ve clubs ooded out, including Grimsby
Town’s Blundell Park which will sit beneath
the new North Sea. Things will be wet
in Netherlands too where the stadiums
of Alkmaar Den Haag, Groningen,
Heerenveen and Utrecht can look forward
to total annual ooding with partial oods
for Ajax and Feyenoord.
Playing Against the Clock 10
Given how obsessed the world of sport
is with counting and statistics, it is
remarkable how little counting of carbon
has been conducted. The only reasonably
thorough and rigorous studies have
been commissioned by the IOC, FIFA
and UEFA in relation to the Olympics, the
World Cup and the European Football
championships, alongside a small body
of work on individual football clubs, the
lower leagues of English football and
North America’s National Hockey League.
However, the carbon emissions of most
sports in most countries, and most events
and leagues, let alone grassroots sports,
are a mystery.
In addition two important ancillary
components of the global sports circuit, the
broadcasting industry and the sportswear
industry, both of which have a substantial
carbon footprint are absent for these
calculations. Neither is simple to calculate
as the sportswear industry is rather coy
about its carbon emissions, and we have
only just been to calculate the carbon
costs of dierent kinds of digital sports
consumption (on TV/tablets/ phones etc).
Their absence means that the round gure
for sport’s carbon footprint generated in
this paper is a signicant understatement.
Generating a gure, then, for the carbon
footprint of global sport is going to
require a lot of assumptions, guesses and
estimates, but there is, I would argue, just
enough information for us to begin that
process and suggest a gure for sport’s
carbon emissions that is at least the right
order of magnitude.
Estimating the emissions
of the Olympic games,
World Cups and the
global sporting circuit
Consider this:
Estimates of the carbon emissions from
the Summer Games – including both the
Olympics and the Paralympics – since
2008 have been:
27
Beijing 2008 1.2 MT
London 2012 3.4 MT
Rio 2016 3.6 MT
(MT = Million tonnes CO
2
e)
Beijing’s emissions were calculated
without including spectator travel and
accommodation and are, therefore,
signicantly lower than its successors. All
the estimates include venue construction,
but London and Rio added the carbon
emissions associated with at least
some of the transport and other urban
infrastructure built alongside the games
and are thus, our best guides.
28
2. Putting up a big score: Sport’s
contribution to climate change
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 11
Estimates for the Winter Games since 2010
have been:
Vancouver 2010 0.25 MT
Sochi 2014 0.52 MT
Pyeongchang 2018 1.59 MT
Vancouver did not include the
emissions associated with new
transport infrastructure, which were very
considerable, while Sochi’s estimates in
this regard were considered very low.
Estimates for the FIFA World Cup (which
includes the Confederations Cup held
the year prior to the World Cup as well
as associated events, like draws and
banquets) since 2010 are:
South Africa 2010 2.75 MT
Brazil 2014 2.27 MT
Russia 2018 2.16 MT
The Brazilian and Russian estimates did
not include stadium construction carbon
and are thus on the low side. Athlete and
spectator travel accounted for 67 per cent
of South African emissions, 83 per cent
in Brazil and 74 per cent in Russia, which
oers a useful rule of thumb for calculating
spectator carbon emissions at other
international events.
29
I wonder, in the case of the summer and
winter Olympics, if we could allow the
games to stand proxy for the carbon
footprint of world sport over the four
year cycle during which they take place?
After all, they are, in eect, multiple
sporting world championships which
occur themselves on a biannual or
annual basis. Given events on the global
sports circuit have less infrastructure
costs than an Olympic games, and fewer
international spectators, and therefore
smaller carbon footprints, we could add in
the continental competitions, international
circuits/tours, youth games, that most
sports put on beyond their singular world
championships. A similar proxy could
perhaps be suggested for the World Cup
and the world of international football
(qualiers and continental tournaments,
continental club competitions, youth world
cups, women’s World Cups). So, each year
global sports produce the same carbon
emissions as a hypothetical year in which
both Olympics and the World Cup take
place.
Taking a rough average of the estimates
above, that is around 7-8 million tonnes
for the Olympics and the World Cup
and then, if we add in the other major
international sporting circuits – F1, cricket,
tennis, golf, rugby league etc – a ball park
gure might be 10 million tonnes a year
for global sport.
Another way of coming at this is to look
at the research in Sportcal’s 2017 Global
Sporting Impact report which, over a four
year cycle 2013-2106, compiled a list of
the leading 317 global sporting events.
30
They found that there were 54 million
spectators at them, of which the World
Cup and the winter and summer Olympics
accounted for 10 million. So that’s about
a fth of the total spectatorship, but given
their greater carbon intensity, at least a
quarter of emissions, which would give us
a similar gure to the rst estimate.
Playing Against the Clock 12
Professional sports
leagues
The data here is a lot less satisfactory.
The single best study of carbon emissions
for a football club is for Fluminense, from
Rio, in 2014. This calculated that the
club’s activities (all teams, aviation and
spectator travel included) emitted 2,500
tonnes. If this were the average for the
Brazilian top division teams (many have
bigger crowds than Fluminense, so it may
be an underestimate) then the league as
whole would be emitting 50,000 tonnes
a season.
31
Translating this into emissions for other
other leagues, in richer countries which
generally emit more carbon, generate
more waste etc, we can adjust be looking
at the ratio of per capita emissions
between Brazil and another country. In the
case of the English Premier League (EPL),
the ratio would be 2.37/5.59. So we can
assume that an EPL club produces approx
2.35 times as much carbon as a Brazilian
club. So that gives a gure for the EPL of
110,793 tonnes a year.
However, the EPL has a lot more
spectators than the Brazilian
championship, and spectators are the
biggest carbon emitters in this situation.
So, again, a ratio needs to be calculated:
Brazilian Championship
Spectators 8.5 million
EPL Spectators 14.5 million
This makes an estimated carbon total for
the EPL of 110,793 x 1.7 = 200,117 tonnes.
This would mean an average for each
club of about 10,000 tonnes a year, which
squares very well with one of the few
other carbon footprint calculations – for V
Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.
32
Coming at it another way we can look at
the work done on the lower tiers of English
football which calculates that spectator
transport produces, in a season, 55,000
tonnes of carbon from around 11 million
spectators. The EPL has 14.5 million
spectators, a simple ratio here suggests
that EPL spectators are emitting at least
72,500 tonnes a year from transport
alone.
33
A second study on carbon
emissions from food, drinks and waste at
lower league football in England gives
an annual total of around 30,000 tonnes.
Applying the same logic as above that
is around 40,000 tonnes a year from the
EPL.
34
From a third study we can add on
another 1000 for the carbon emitted by
EPL squads transport arrangements
and that gives estimate of around 103–
104,000 tonnes.
35
The rst two numbers are both likely to
be underestimates as Premier League
clubs attract spectators from a much great
geographical area than the lower leagues
(including international travellers) and
consume more food and more energy
while going to the game. If one made
a 50 per cent increase on waste and
spectator emissions that gives us a gure
or around 150,000 tonnes. Note there is no
calculation here for the emissions created
by other stadium operations, construction,
training, women’s teams, youth teams
etc. Looking at the kinds of contributions
these make in Brazil, an increase of 10-
20,000 tonnes a year gives us an estimate
of 170,000 tonnes for the EPL which is
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 13
of the same order of magnitude as our
rst estimate of 200,000 tonnes a year.
An average of the two would be 185,000
tonnes of carbon a year.
If the EPL, on these calculations, were
a yardstick for professional sport in the
global north, we can hazard a guess at
the footprint of other leagues by taking
a ratio of EPL spectators to their own
attendance gures and then allowing for
the dierent carbon footprints of dierent
countries with a ratio of per capita carbon
outputs.
So a calculation for American baseball’s
MLB would be:
MLB/EPL Spectators
68.5 million/14.5 million = 4.72
US/UK emissions:
16.1/5.6 = 2.875
MLB Emissions:
4.72 x 2.875 x 185,000 = 2.5 million
This would give a gure of 2.5 million
tonnes for MLB and approximately 0.75
million tonnes for NHL, NBA and the NFL.
The NHL has calculated it 2016 stadium
carbon footprint at 182,355 tonnes,
and that does not include spectator or
team travel, and for international and
domestic events this makes up 65–80 per
cent of carbon emissions. So, a gure of
around three quarters of million a year,
calculated by our estimates, is not entirely
implausible.
36
Similar back of the envelope calculations
give us gures of around 140,000 tonnes
a year for La Liga and Serie A, 570,000
tonnes for Japanese baseball, and a total
for the top 17 professional leagues of
7.9 million tonnes of carbon per annum
on a total attendance of 280 million. The
next 20 or so leagues are responsible for
around two million tonnes of carbon. The
total global attendance at national sport
events is hard to calculate but it seems to
be that these big leagues in big countries
probably account of about half of the
world’s sports attendance. So that gives
a ball park gure of around 20 million
tonnes and a total for global sport of
around 30 million tonnes – approximately
the same as the whole of Denmark or
twice that of Ethiopia.
Large as these gures may seem, they
are almost certainly a considerable
underestimate. Consider this. The size
of the global sports industry has been
calculated at around $500 billion a year.
37
Global GDP is $85 trillion which means
that sport is about 0.6% of the global
economy which is responsible for 50 to
60 billion tonnes of CO
2
e. Sport may be
less carbon intensive than some economic
sectors – like concrete production – but it
also very heavy on aviation, so its 0.6 per
cent of global GDP is probably something
close to generating 0.6 per cent of global
emissions, which makes it responsible for
300–350 million tonnes; that means sport
is not the equivalent of Bolivia or Angola,
but of Spain or Poland. Either way, or
somewhere in the middle, at this perilous
moment in our climate and planetary
history, this is too much.
Playing Against the Clock 14
Sport and
environmental policy
The longest standing, and perhaps most
important trigger for the sports world’s
engagement with the environment has
been the Winter Olympics. Since their
inception in 1924 the games have
invariably served as an opportunity to
advertise winter sports facilities in fragile
mountain ecosystems, as well as build
the transport and tourism infrastructure
that delivers the paying public. As early
as 1932, the proposed bobsleigh run for
the Lake Placid games, which required
the cutting down of numerous trees, was
successfully opposed by local residents.
The 1968 Grenoble games were notorious
for sports facilities that were unsuited
to or degraded their surroundings. The
ski jump was too exposed to the wind,
disrupting training. The downhill ski runs
were at an altitude too low for snow
cover to be guaranteed. The luge run was
too low to guarantee ice. All were later
abandoned, a fact noted by a coalition of
environmentalists and low tax republicans
who forced and won a referendum
opposing Denver holding the 1976 games.
Nonetheless, it took till the early 1990s,
and more environmental controversy
around the 1992 Albertville games, for
the IOC to really take the issue seriously.
Then IOC President Samaranch rst spoke
on the matter at Davos in 1991, but the
main energies pushing the IOC came
from outside. In the realm of international
politics the UNEP conference in Rio in
1992 set a new, baseline environmental
agenda for every international and
national organisation, in every sector
of economy and society. Beyond the
games the 1990s saw an outburst of anti-
golf protest, particularly in fragile rural
ecosystems in China and South East Asia
where local farmers were dispossessed
by developments.
38
In the realm of
international sport the local organisers
of the Lillehammer winter games of 1994
and the Sydney summer games of 2000s,
pressured by their local environmental
movements set new standards for
environmental engagement at mega-
events in terms of venue design, energy
and water use and recycling.
After Lillehammer, the IOC and UNEP
convened a sport and environment
commission, and in 1999 the principles of
environmental sustainability were written
into the Olympic charter. The following
year the IOC developed its rst set of
environmental protocols for bidding
and staging Olympic events, requiring
prospective and actual hosts to closely
monitor their environmental impact. They
have been recently updated in the IOCs
Agenda 2020 strategy document and, the
organisation has now announced that
3. Playing catch up: Global
sporting federations and
environmental policy
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 15
from 2030 the games will not be merely
carbon neutral, but carbon negative.
However, the IOC’s power to inuence
local organisers once a bid has been
allocated has proved very limited, and
nothing in its current practice suggests
this is likely to change.
39
Athens failed to
meet almost every single environmental
objective it set itself, as well as leaving
the largest legacy of empty and unusable
stadiums. Beijing’s air pollution was worse
at the end of its Olympic programme than
when it began. London promised to oset
its carbon emissions, and then failed to do
so.
40
Amongst the winter games Vancouver,
Sochi and Pyeongchang, environmental
degradation took many forms: building
on sacred Native American land in
Canada, tearing up a national park in
Russia, and felling ancient and spiritually
revered forest in South Korea.
41
As we
know from decades of environmental
and climate policy implementation any
credible governance system needs serious
compliance and sanctioning mechanisms.
This is what happens in their absence.
That said, a least the IOC has been
engaged. Very few sports organisations,
greenwash aside, have had any kind
of serious environmental programme,
beyond installing recycling bins at events,
and certainly not in the eld of climate
change. The only real exception has
been international football and it has
hardly begun. The game’s engagement
with climate change was initiated by
the German organisers of the 2006
men’s World Cup, who, together with
the German government, invested half a
million euros in energy and water saving
technologies and osetting 100,000 tonnes
of emissions from spectator aviation (likely
a massive underestimate). FIFA paid for
some osets in relation to the emissions
from the 2010 and 2014 World Cups,
and incorporated environmental criteria
into the bidding rounds for the 2018
and 2022 World Cups. Qatar 2022 will,
according to the organisers, be a carbon
neutral World Cup, though quite how this
accounts for the hydrocarbon soaked
wealth that has made the show possible
is unspoken. UEFA had planned to foot
the entire osetting bill for spectator
aviation emissions generated by the now
postponed Euro 2020 European Football
Championships.
The trouble with
osetting
Osetting is not in itself a panacea.
Some schemes have been shown to be
worse than useless, either not working or
even increasing emissions. Other osets
schemes may fund projects which are
in themselves good, and might absorb
carbon, but not in a like-for-like way. Fossil
fuels are a stable long term way to store
carbon, but if you plant trees to oset
the use of oil for example, a tree might
live for only a few years or decades, not
store carbon for millions of years. So, rst
and foremost, sport needs to reduce its
absolute emissions by minimising its use of
fossil fuel energy, switching to renewable
energy where possible and cutting out
unnecessary travel and choosing lower
carbon transport options. Then, when it
hits the wall of cuts that can be made in
these ways, it should alongside investing
in carbon capture, choose to compensate
rather than just oset for its remaining
emissions, including making payments
communities who are most vulnerable to
the climate emergency.
Playing Against the Clock 16
While all of these initiatives have been
a useful start they remain a fragmented
and very incomplete package. In an
eort to bring some systematic thinking
and political urgency to the problem, the
UNFCCC and some of the leading world
sports organisations launched, in 2016, the
UN Sport for Climate Action Framework
and invited the sporting world to sign up.
42
The framework requires organisations
to take systematic measures to reduce
their carbon emissions and reach climate
neutrality by 2050. Along the way they are
asked to educate their athletes, clubs and
spectators on climate change issues, and
advocate for sustainable solutions. There
are, however, no targets in the framework,
and no mechanisms of control, and, above
all, an inadequate sense of urgency.
The climate science is increasingly clear:
the “limit temperature rises to 2°C by
2050” model will be pretty catastrophic
in its own right, and that we have to do
the vast majority of our decarbonisation
in the next decade. If the past two
decades of environmental policy in sports
organisations is anything to go by then
saying to global sport that 2050 is the
target is a sure re guarantee of nothing
being done for another generation.
The state of play: Sports
federations, leagues
and the environment
It is now almost twenty-ve years since the
IOC made environmental sustainability
a pillar of the Olympic movement, and
two decades since the Sydney Olympics
claimed to be “the greenest games
ever.” There has been no shortage of
environmental slogans in the sports
world since, but there has been precious
little action, especially amongst the
governing bodies of sport and the leading
professional and commercial leagues.
In 2018, Arnout Geeraert and Play the
Game published a remarkably detailed
survey of global and national sporting
institutions, in which environmental
issues were one of 52 minutely
detailed and researched dimensions
of governance.
43
Geeraert examined,
inter alia, whether organisations had a
published environmental policy and a
sta member centrally concerned with the
issue; whether their bidding process for
tournaments and the staging of games
had environmental targets; whether they
encouraged their national and local
aliates to engage with the issue; and
whether they cooperated with other
organisations on environmental policies?
Hardly the most rigorous or demanding
of tests? Yet, despite such a low bar, he
found that only one of the ve global
organisations he examined – FIFA – was
up to this minimal mark, while FINA
(Aquatic sports), the IHF (Hockey) and the
ITF (Tennis) couldn’t manage even twenty
percent of these minuscule requirements.
The results for national sports associations
in Europe was dismal, with the average
national body in athletics, swimming,
tennis and handball just as bad, and
only as high as it was because of the
exceptional records of Danish and
Norwegian associations. In a follow up
survey conducted in 2019 on six additional
world sports federations, only two – FEI
(Equestrianism) and FIS) (Skiing) had all
the environmental governance measures
in place, but the FIVB (Volleyball), and IIHF
(Ice Hockey) have almost none, and the
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 17
FIG (Gymnastics) and IBU (Biathlon) were
a long way short of a minimum standard
of environmental good governance.
44
Our own quick survey of global sporting
and bodies and national leagues (the
details of which are in the appendix)
suggests that things haven’t moved on
very much. Given the really very minimal
commitments entailed in signing up to the
UN Sports and Climate Action Framework
it is remarkable just how few have taken
the plunge.
45
The IOC, FIFA, UEFA and the
IPC (Paralympics) were early signatories
and have been joined by World Athletics,
World Rugby, the UCI (Cycling) and the
global bodies for taekwondo, wrestling
and sailing. But this leaves the majority
of sports federations represented at the
Olympics outside the framework. From
amongst winter sports, only the world ice
hockey and skiing federations have joined,
which makes one wonder what the people
in charge of luge and bobsleigh think they
are going to be sliding on in the future.
The four major tournaments of the world
tennis circuit are all signatories, yet cricket,
which is equally, if not more, at risk from
extreme heat is barely present. Two clubs
from Melbourne are there but no sign of
the ICC or the big national cricket boards.
Golf, the US Golf Association aside, is
conspicuous by its absence. Amongst the
biggest professional commercial leagues
there are major gaps. In North America
the NFL, the NBA and MLS have signed
but not NHL or MLB. In Europe, from the
ve biggest football nations, the DFB
and the English FA are in, but neither the
Bundesliga nor the Premier League are. In
Spain La Liga has joined, but not Spain’s
football federation, and neither federation
or league from France or Italy is present.
Bringing up the tail there is a miscellany
of marathons, organising committees,
reasonably esoteric sports bodies – Bowls
Australia and the International Rafting
Federation, for example – the Mets and
the Yankees, three clubs from MLS, V
Wolfsburg and Forest Green Rovers.
A merry band, perhaps, but hardly a
comprehensive squad.
Of course signing up to the UN Framework
is no guarantee that a sports federation
or club will have environmental policies
and plans consummate with their newly
acquired commitments. There have
been, as we shall see in more detail
below, many one-o environmental, low
carbon initiatives in global sport, and in
the elds of stadium design and waste
management some developments.
However, tackling climate change clearly
requires more than one-o ventures and
well-meaning guidelines. At the very
least organisations require a written,
strategic, long term plan that looks to
make their sport carbon neutral by 2030.
Currently, among sports federations, only
the IOC and World Athletics have such
a document, while amongst professional
leagues and events only Formula 1 and
the NHL have made serious carbon
commitments. FIFA are planning carbon
neutral World Cups and UEFA plans a
carbon neutral European Championship,
but this leaves great swathes of their
activities unaccounted for. The rest,
even those that have signed up to the
framework, have either strategies that fall
short of this or none at all.
Perhaps more telling than the presence
or absence of any document or policy
framework, is the very real presence
of petrochemical companies, airlines
Playing Against the Clock 18
and vehicle manufactures as sponsors
and advertisers in the global sport.
Gazprom are top tier sponsors of
FIFA, UEFA and world bobsleigh; Total
sponsors badminton, triathlon and the
Confederation of African Football; Esso
pairs with the International Ice Hockey
Federation, the Azerbaijani state oil
company, SOCAR, is another UEFA
sponsor, while its Italian equivalent, ENI,
sponsors Serie A. Airlines are equally
enmeshed in global sport with their own
portfolios of promotion: Qatar Airlines
(FIFA); Lufthansa (the DFB, Modern
Pentathlon); Air Canada (Ice Hockey); and
Emirates (Asian Football Confederation,
the English Football Association).
Both these hydrocarbon sectors
are present in the top leagues of
European football, where petrochemical
sponsorships include: Total at RB Leipzig
and Union Berlin, Gazprom at Schalke
04, Suncor at Liverpool, Ineos at Nice,
and AVAV Energeisa at Eibar in Spain.
Airline sponsorships include: Emirates
(Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid), Etihad
(Manchester City), Qatar Airlines (Roma,
PSG) and smaller carriers at Verona,
Reims, Real Valladolid, Newcastle United,
West Ham United and Norwich City.
This is not to suggest that some sports
organisations aren’t beginning to make
real changes, and below I list some
of the more innovative and important
developments, but they are, as yet, too
limited in their scope, and too few in their
number and we are getting very close to
the nal whistle.
46
First steps: Sport and
carbon emissions
UEFA
Perhaps the biggest challenge for
global sport is dealing with the carbon
emissions from spectator attendance,
especially at international events, which
generate huge amounts of air trac.
UEFA experimented at the 2016 European
Football Championships with a campaign
and app that would allow fans to
oset their own carbon emissions when
attending the tournament; but the take
up was lamentably low. Consequently,
UEFA decided to absorb the entire costs
of osetting the aviation emissions for
EURO 2020 themselves. If global sport is
to continue in anything close to its current
form this has, at the minimum and taking
account of the weaknesses of osetting,
to be the default model for every single
international sporting event.
47
World athletics
In 2019 World Athletics unveiled its
environmental strategy and it is the rst
really serious attempt to go carbon neutral
amongst sports federations.
48
It does
not, as yet, commit to dealing with the
emissions generated by spectators, but it
does commit to transforming the emissions
of the organisation itself, the hosts of
the global events it is involved with, and
all the sponsors it works with. All are
expected to be carbon neutral by 2030
based on a ten per cent reduction per
year, year on year, over the next decade.
This is the bare minimum that every other
sports organisation needs to devise for
itself.
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 19
World sailing
World Sailing’s Sustainability Report
2030, is one of the few other documents
from amongst Olympic sports federations
that commits to a carbon reduction target,
with a plan to cut emissions at events by
50 per cent by 2024, as well introducing
higher environmental standards for boats
themselves: for example, to participate in
the 2028 Olympic Games, 90 per cent of a
boat must be recyclable, and waste from
the production process must be halved
compared to 2018.
49
Formula 1
Hitherto the world’s number one advert
for burning carbon and unsustainable
lifestyles, Formula 1, has undergone
something of a Damascene conversion
and pledged, spectator travel aside, to
be carbon zero by 2030. Racing the cars
themselves is a minuscule 0.7 per cent of
the quarter of a million tonnes of carbon
the events and the teams emit each year.
The real issues, as usual, are the transport
costs of moving teams, cars, sponsors and
spectators around the world, primarily
by air, which F1 plans to oset, but with
all the attendant issues outlined above,
by investing in carbon capture and
reforestation.
50
Forest Green Rovers
Forest Green Rovers, in Nailsworth in the
west of England, play in League Two,
the fourth level of English professional
football, but they are the rst UN certied
carbon zero football club in the world. The
club uses 100 per cent renewable energy,
has switched to vegan food for sta
and fans, installed extensive rainwater
recycling, a solar powered lawn mower
and plenty of electric vehicle charging
points. It now has planning permission
to build the rst new wooden stadium
in Britain for over a century, and the rst
carbon zero stadium ever.
51
More recently
Forest Green have been joined by Real
Betis from Sevillia in their commitment to
carbon neutrality
German football
The Bundesliga itself has not signed
up to the UN Sports for Climate Action
Framework, but many of its member
clubs have been taking action. Both
Mainz FC and SC Freiburg have almost
a decade of environmental work behind
them, pioneering recycling, green waste
management and the use of renewable
energy in football. Werder Bremen has
built one of the largest solar panel arrays
in football, introduced ferry services to
the stadium to cut down on car use, and
has actually banned car parking around
the stadium on match days. All three
of these clubs encouraged their sta
to attend the Friday for Future climate
strikes. TSG Hoenheim, has been
investing in African forestry, sustainable
textile and environmental education
projects. Augsburg FC invested heavily
in a geothermal energy system to make
their new stadium carbon neutral while
VfL Wolfsburg has signed up to the UN
Framework, and, almost uniquely in
the world game, calculated its carbon
footprint. Given this kind work, and
widespread support for these issues
amongst German fans, the Bundesliga
has the opportunity to create a framework
that would make the Bundesliga the rst
carbon zero league in the world.
52
The
French authorities have recently launched
their own collective eort – the NGO
Football Ecologie France, to make
French football carbon zero.
53
Playing Against the Clock 20
The rallying cry of the anti-apartheid
sports movement of the late twentieth
century calls to us now. Then, there could,
morally and politically, be no normal sport
if one played with the representatives of
a violent and authoritarian regime where
race determined who you could play with
and how. Racism and exclusion in sports
has not gone away, but now it is joined
by a new abnormality – the risks, dangers
and disruptions posed by climate change
to playing sport, to playing safely and
happily on this planet. It’s worth adding
that the climate emergency places a
disproportionate burden on people wtih
low incomes in the global South, and
black and minority ethnic communities in
the global North. The sports world needs
to make some fundamental changes, now.
In 2020 the world has been given
a master class in the dynamics of
catastrophe. The impact of the coronavirus
pandemic on sport has demonstrated the
fragility of our institutions, but also the
possibility of radical, rapid change. Our
rationed exercise and limited access to
open space reminds us of the inequalities
of access to sport facilities and activities,
but also of our profound and universal
need to move and play. The eerie silence
of football games played behind closed
door games has spoken to our loneliness
and separation, and, in its absence, to
the power and the joy of human crowds.
These insights are worth preserving.
Above all the idea that our need to play is
an essential component of the good life,
and though we may nd our way through
the pandemic, this will still be threatened
by climate change. It is no surprise that
sport did not predict and prepare for
coronavirus, but with climate change
there is no excuse; we have had the pre-
match brief, the dossier, the video play
back and all the data. What time is it?
It’s game time.
• All global sporting federations and
their national members, and all
professional sports leagues and tours
need to sign the UN Sport for Climate
Action Framework.
• Of course, the framework needs to be
tougher. At a minimum, all signatories
must commit, within one year of
signing, to draw up and publish a
comprehensive ten year plan that will
ensure that their own operations and
that of their sport, including spectator
travel, are carbon zero by 2030.
• These documents need to be drawn
up to a standard of at least the detail
of World Athletics, setting very clear
annual targets and steps to achieve
them. Presidents and CEOs need to
take personal responsibility for their
delivery.
• This requires an entirely new level of
monitoring and reporting from sports
bodies which must be externally
reviewed by an independent body
created and funded by the global
sports industry.
4. Conclusions: No Normal Sport
in an Abnormal World
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 21
• After 2030, any global sports events or
tours that are not carbon zero should
be cancelled or postponed until they
are. Sports federations that are not
carbon zero should be excluded from
the Olympics. National federations
that had not made sucient progress
could be excluded from international
competition by their sports federations.
• The leading professional and
commercial tours and leagues should
do the same, and membership of
that tour or that league, for clubs and
franchises, should become dependent
on them doing the same as well.
Progress on carbon reduction could
be part of the annual audit that clubs
undergo and a precondition of their
participation. Host venues for tours like
the European Golf Tour or the ICC’s
test matches and ODI competitions,
for example, should make similar
demands on their hosts and events.
• The same strictures should be applied
to any company that wants to be
a sponsor or broadcaster of any
signatory to the framework. They
need to sign up, have a carbon zero
commitment, and show how their
business, including all the activation
events and advertising conducted
around sports, is reducing and
compensating for its emissions.
• It goes without saying that global sport
needs to wean itself of petro-chemical
and aviation sponsorship as soon as
possible.
• Nonetheless, across the board, there
needs to be a recognition that if
international sport is going to continue
in anything close to its current form,
it will be using a lot of aviation.
Fewer tournaments and competitions,
held less often, might be part of the
solution. Either way, the sports world
must commit to the very highest
standards of carbon oset programme
for their own and their spectators
emissions.
• Government and other public bodies,
from sports ministries to the European
Union, that fund sporting organisations
must make carbon zero plans a
precondition of any future monies.
• All sports federations, global and
national, need to survey the impact of
climate change on grassroots sport,
and establish funding mechanisms
to support its response to these
problems. Perhaps most important of
all, the global sports industry needs to
reprioritise grassroots and local sport
(low carbon) over professional and
global sport (high carbon).
Achieving this will involve a monumentally
complex and demanding set of tasks.
It is well beyond the reach of this
paper to outline all the ways which
sporting organisations and events could
decarbonise, but they would certainly
include: new stadiums and other facilities
adopting entirely new building standards
and zero carbon materials, served
overwhelmingly by walking, cycling and
public transport; every event needs
to minimise its energy consumption,
transform its food and waste cultures,
cut out plastic, recycle everything,
decarbonise its use of transport, including
athletes, spectators and ocials, and
oset or compensate for what they must.
In truth, these kinds of changes need to
happen in every economic and social
Playing Against the Clock 22
sector, in every sphere of our collective
lives. Sport may be just big enough to
register, in terms of carbon emissions, as
a small nation state, or a single mega
city, but its own eorts are just a fraction
of a percentage point of the world total.
Yet few human practices oer such an
extraordinarily large, global, and socially
diverse constituency as those playing
and following sport. Making a carbon
zero world the common sense priority
of the sports world would make a huge
contribution to making it the common
sense priority of all politics.
And then there is the question of hope. In
short supply I note, and with many, many
calls upon it. Sport, from the street to the
stadium, generates hope: that hard work
yields the possibility of development; that
no cause is lost until the game is actually
at an end; that the past tells us miraculous
recoveries, turnovers and rallies are
possible; that human beings, individually
and collectively, have the heart and the
wit, when the time comes, to make it
happen. That is a precious set of cultural
treasures to hold in trust for the world.
If global sport is ready to adopt and
pursue really radical change in the eld
of climate action, it might be able to oer
them, in all good faith, to humanity… and
then you just never know.
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 23
Appendices
Abbreviations:
UNSCAF United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework
ST Stadium
TG Training Ground
Table 1: Summer Olympic Associations
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
International Swimming
Federation (FINA)
X X
✔
X
World Archery Federation
(WA)
X X X X
Hyundai
World Athletics
X
Carbon
Neutral by
2030
X
✔
Badminton World
Federation (BWF)
X X X X
Total S.A.
International Basketball
Federation (FIBA)
X X
✔
X
International Boxing
Association (IBA)
X X
✔
X
International Canoe
Federation (ICF)
X X
✔
X
International Cycling Union
(ICU)
✔
X X X
Mercedez-Benz
International Federation for
Equestrian Sports (FEI)
✔
X
✔
X
International Fencing
Federation (FIE)
X X X X
International Federation of
Association Football (FIFA)
✔
Carbon
Neutral
2022 WC
X
for Qatar
WC 2022
Gazprom,
Qatar Airways,
Hyundai, Kia
International Golf
Federation (IGF)
✔
X
✔
X
Playing Against the Clock 24
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
International Gymnastics
Federation (IFG)
X X X X
International Handball
Federation (IHF)
X X X X
International Hockey
Federation (FIH)
X X X X
International Judo
Federation (IJF)
X X X X
International Modern
Pentathlon Union (UIPM)
X X
✔
X
Lufthansa
International Rowing
Federation (FISA)
✔
X
✔
X
World Rugby (WR)
✔
X
✔
X
World Sailing
✔
50%
reduction
by 2024
X
✔
International Shooting
Sport Federation (ISSF)
X X
✔
X
International Table Tennis
Federation (ITTF)
X X X X
World Taekwondo (WT)
✔
X X
✔
International Tennis
Federation (ITF)
X X X X
International Triathlon
Union (ITU)
✔
X X X
Texaco
International Volleyball
Federation (FIVB)
X X
✔
X
International Weightlifting
Federation (IWF)
X X
✔
X
United World Wrestling (UWW)
✔
X
✔
X
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 25
Table 2: Winter Olympic Associations
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
International Biathlon
Union (IBU)
X X
✔
X
BMW
International Bobsleigh
and Skeleton Federation
(IBSF)
X X X X
Gazprom,
Ford
World Curling Federation
(WCF)
X X X X
International Ice Hockey
Federation (IHHF)
✔
X
✔
X
ESSO, Air
Canada,
Chevrolet
International Skating Union
(ISU)
X X X X
International Luge
Federation (FIL)
X X X X
BMW
International Ski
Federation (FIS)
✔
X
✔
X
Table 3: Non-Olympic Associations
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
International Cricket
Council (ICC)
X X X X
The England and Wales
Cricket Board (ECB)
X X
✔
X
Kia
Board of Control for Cricket
in India
X X X X
Hyundai
Formula 1 (F1)
X
Carbon
Neutral by
2030
X X
Aramco
Petronas,
Emirates
National Association for
Stock Car Auto Racing
(NASCAR)
X X X X
Chevrolet, Ford
Playing Against the Clock 26
US Professional Golfers’
Association Tour (USPGA)
X X X X
NetJets, United
Airlines
European Professional
Golfers’ Association Tour
X X X X
Emirates, BMW
United States Tennis
Association (USTA)
✔
X X X
Mercedes-Benz
All England Lawn Tennis
Club (Wimbledon)
✔
Carbon
Neutral by
2030
X
✔
Jaguar, Land
Rover
French Tennis Federation
(FFT)
✔
X X
✔
Emirates,
Peugeot
Tennis Australia
✔
X X X
Emirates, Kia
Table 4: Major US Associations
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
National Football
League (NFL)
✔
X
✔
X
Ford, Genesis
National Basketball
Association (NBA)
✔
X X X
Major League Baseball
(MLB)
X X X X
Chevrolet
National Hockey
League (NHL)
X X X
✔
Honda
Major League Soccer
(MLS)
X X X X
Audi
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 27
Table 5: Football Associations
Association UNSCAF
Carbon
Promise
Sustainability
Guideline
Sustainability
Strategy
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
International Federation of
Association Football (FIFA)
✔
Carbon
Neutral
WC 2022
X
for Qatar WC
2022
Gazprom, Hyundai,
Kia, Qatar Airways
Union of European Football
Associations (UEFA)
X X
for Euro 2020 for Euro 2020 Gazprom, SOCAR,
Nissan, Volkswagen
South American Football
Federation (CONEMBOL)
X X X X
Qatar Airways, Ford
Confederation of North,
Central American and
Carribbean Association
Football (CONCACAF)
X X X X
Confederation of African
Football (CAF)
X X X X
Total S.A.
Asian Football
Confederation (AFC)
X X X X
Emirates
Oceana Football
Confederation (OFC)
X X X X
La Liga
✔
X X
vague
Royal Spanish Football
Federation (RFEF)
X X X X
Iberia, Seat
Premier League
X X X X
English Football Association
(FA)
✔
X X
vague Emirates
Bundesliga
X X X X
German Football
Association (DFB)
✔
X X X
Lufthansa,
Volkswagen
Ligue 1
X X X X
French Football Federation
(FFF)
X X X X
Volkswagen
Serie A Tim
X X X X
Volkswagen
Italian Football Federation
(FIGC)
X X X X
ENI, Fiat
Playing Against the Clock 28
Table 6: Premier League Clubs Sustainability Performance
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy
Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon
Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
AFC
Bournemouth
X X
LEDs reusable
cups 2020
X X X
Maxim Denim
(Petrochemicals)
Arsenal
X
100% Octopus
Energy
reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
90%
MD
recycled
TG
recycling
X
Emirates
Aston Villa
X X
LEDs some SUPs
removed
X
recycling
on roofs
X
Wes Edens (oil
& gas), Nassef
Sawiris (nitrogen
fertilizer)
Brighton and
Hove Albion
X
100% BREEAM ‘very
good’
some
SUPs
removed
0 waste
to
landll
X
vegan
option
Burnley
X
100% LEDs TG plastic
bottles
removed
X X
50% local
Chelsea
X X
ESOS
compliant
reusable
cups
X
TG
recycling
vegan
option
Hyundai,
MSC
Cruises
Roman
Abramovich (oil)
Crystal Palace
X X X
reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
X X
vegan
option
Everton
X
partial LEDs reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
90%
MD
recycled
waterless
urinals
X
Leicester City
X X X X X X
vegan
option
Liverpool
X X
LEDs, ecient
driers
reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
99%
recycled
AC
borehole,
ST water
savings
X
MG, Suncor
Energy
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 29
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy
Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon
Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Manchester City
X
partial,
CHP at
ST
many
examples
reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
0 waste
to
landll
TG
recycling
X
Etihad,
Nissan
Sheikh Mansour
(oil)
Manchester
United
X
partial many
examples
some SUPs
removed
0 waste
to
landll
TG and ST
recycling
vegan
option
Gulf Oil,
Aeroot,
Chevrolet
Newcastle
United
X
solar
panels
at TG
LEDs,
improved
boilers
some SUPs
removed
X
TG
borehole,
ST water
savings
vegan
option
Loganair,
Volkswagen
(in process)
Mohammad Bin
Salman (oil)
Norwich City
X
solar
panels
at TG
X X X
TG
recycling,
ST
borehole
X
Loganair,
Loftus
Sheeld United
X
solar
panels
at AC
LEDs, light
sensors
some
SUPs
removed
0 waste
to
landll
TG & ST
borehole
local &
vegan
Southampton
X X
LEDs some
SUPs
removed
X X
local &
vegan
Tottenham
Hotspurs
X
10% at
TG
LEDs, green
roofs, water
tanks
some
SUPs
removed
X
TG
recycling
&
borehole,
ST water
savings
local &
vegan
Audi
Watford
X
100% LEDs reusable
cups,
some SUPs
removed
60%
recycled
TG
borehole
vegan
option
West Ham
United
X
100% decentralised
energy system
some
SUPs
removed
X
ST
recycling
& water
savings
vegan
option
Eva Air
Wolverhampton
Wanderers
X X
LEDs,
improved
boilers
some
SUPs
removed
85%
recycled
ST water
savings
vegan
option
Fosun
International
(owns Roc Oil)
Playing Against the Clock 30
Table 7: Bundesliga Clubs Sustainability Performance
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon
Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
FC Augsburg
X
geothermal
at ST
climate-
neutral ST
X X X X
Audi
Bayer Leverkusen
X
100%
X
reusable
cups
X
well
water for
irrigation
X
Bayern Munich
X
partial
X
reusable
cups
X X X
Qatar
Airways,
Audi
Borussia Dortmund
X
solar
panels
at ST
LEDs
reusable
cups
X
TG
recycling
X
OPEL
Borussia
Mönchengladbach
X
partial LEDs
reusable
cups
X X
local
Eintracht Frankfurt
X X X
reusable
cups
X X X
Fortuna Düsseldorf
X X X
reusable
cups
X X X
Düsseldorf
Airport
SC Freiburg
X
solar &
CHP at ST
X
reusable
cups
X
ST water
savings
X
Hertha BSC
X X X X X X X
Hyundai
TSG 1899
Hoenheim
X
solar
panels
at ST
X X X X X
Audi
1. FC Köln
X X
ecient
pitch
heating
X X X X
Ford
RB Leipzig
X X X X X X X
Total S.A.,
Volkswagen
1. FSV Mainz 05
X
100%
X X X X X
OPEL
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 31
SC Paderborn 07
X
solar
panels at
ST
X
reusable
cups
X X X
Shalke 04
X X X
elminated
plastic
products
at ST
X
ST water
savings
X
Gazprom
Union Berlin
X X X
reusable
cups
X X
local Total S.A.
Werder Bremen
X
solar
panels at
ST
X X X X X
Volkswagen
VfL Wolfsburg
✔
100% LEDs
X X
water
sourced
from
nearby
canal
X
Volkswagen
Table 8: Ligue 1 Clubs Sustainability Performance
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Amiens
X X X X X X X
Angers
X X X X X X X
Bordeaux
X X X X X X X
Fiat
Brest
X X X X X X X
Dijon
X X X X X X X
Lille
X X X X X X X
Hyundai
Gerard
Lopez (oil
trading)
Lyon
X X
LEDs
X
TG and
AC waste
scheme
TG and
AC
recycling
X
Hyundai
Marseille
X X
ST 100% LED
X X X X
Toyota
Playing Against the Clock 32
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy
Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon
Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Metz
X X X X X X X
Monaco
X X X X X X X
Toyota,
FEDCOM
Dmitry
Rybolovlev
(potash/fertilizer)
Montpellier
X X X X X X X
Nantes
X X
LEDs
X X X X
Nice
X
solar
panels
at ST
natural air
conditioning
X
ST waste
scheme
ST
recycling
X
Hyundai,
INEOS
Sir Jim Ratclie
(petrochemicals)
Nîmes
X X X X X X X
Paris Saint-
Germain
X X
TG
bioclimatic
design
X
TG on
site waste
scheme
TG
recycling
X
Qatar
Airways,
Renault
Tanim bin
Hamad Al Thani
(oil & gas)
Reims
X X X X X X X
Eva Air, Kia
Rennes
X X X X X X X
Mercedes-
Benz
Saint-Étienne
X
solar
panels
at ST
ST ultra
ecient
heating
X X
ST
recycling
X
Strasbourg
X X X X X X X
Toulouse
X X X X X X X
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 33
Table 9: Serie A Clubs Sustainability Performance
* information refers to planned buildings
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy Eciency
Single Use Plastics
(SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Atalanta
X X X X X X X
Volvo
Bologna
X X X X X X X
Renault
Brescia
X X X X X X X
Cagliari
X X X X X X X
OPEL
Fiorentina
X X X X X X X
Renault
Genoa
X X X X X X X
Hellas Verona
X X X X X X X
Air
Dolomiti
Internazionale
X
ST
50%*
ST LEED
certied*
X X
ST
recycling*
X
Juventus
X
100%
LEDs, energy
management
X X X X
Jeep,
Ferrari
Agnelli Family
(autocar
companies)
Lazio
X X X X X X X
Renault
Lecce
X X X X X X X
Moby
(ferries)
Milan
X
ST
50%*
ST LEED
certied*
X X
ST
recycling*
X
Emirates
Napoli
X X X X X X X
Parma
X X X X X X X
Roma
X X X X X X X
Qatar
Airways,
Hyundai
Sampdoria
X X X X X X X
Playing Against the Clock 34
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Sassuolo
X X X X X X X
Volvo
SPAL
X X X X X X X
Torino
X X X X X X X
Suzuki
Udinese
X X X X X X X
Table 10: La Liga Clubs Sustainability Performance
* information refers to planned buildings
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy
Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon
Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Alavés
X X X X X X X
Athletic
Bilbao
X X
ST LEED
certied
X X X X
Atlético
Madrid
X
use solar
to heat
water
ST 100%
LED
X X
ST
recycling
X
Hyundai
Barcelona
X
ST, TG, AC
solar*
ST LED,
ecient
heat/
cooling*
X X
ST
recycling*
X
Celta Vigo
X X X X X X X
BMW
Carlos
Mouriño
(petrol
stations)
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 35
Club
UNSCAF
Clean Energy
Energy Eciency
Single Use
Plastics (SUPs)
Waste
Management
Water
Management
Low Carbon Food
Fossil Fuel
Sponsorship
Ownership
Eibar
X X X X X X X
AVIVA
Energias
(petrol
stations)
Espanyol
X
solar
panels at
ST
ST features
energy
saving
X X X X
Getafe
X X X X X X X
Granada
X X X X X X X
Leganés
X X X X X X X
Levante
X X X X X X X
Volkswagen
Mallorca
X X X X X X X
AirEuropa
Osasuna
X X X X X X X
Real Betis *
X
solar
panels at
TG*
LEDs*
X
waste
collection
system*
TG
recycling*
X
Mercedes-
Benz
Real Madrid
X
100% LEDs
X X
uses
council
recycling
network
X
Emirates,
Audi
Real
Sociedad
X X X X X X X
Sevilla
X X X X X X X
Valencia
X X X X X X X
Skoda
Peter Lim
(background
in oil)
Valladolid
X X X X X X X
Villarreal
X X X
reusable
cups
X X X
Audi
Playing Against the Clock 36
Table 11: English Football League Stadia Flood
Threat
* = The club’s stadium will be surrounded by ooded area annually
Club Stadium
Complete
Flood from
SLR
Partial
Flood
from SLR
Complete
Annual
Flood
Partial
Annual
Flood
Blackpool Bloomeld
✔
Cardi City Cardi City
Stadium
✔
Charlton Athletic The Valley
✔
Chelsea Stamford
Bridge
✔
Doncaster Rovers * Keepmoat
Stadium
✔
Fleetwood Town Highbury
✔
Fulham Craven
Cottage
✔
Grimbsby Town Blundell
Park
✔
Hull City KCOM
Stadium
✔ ✔
Ipswich Town Portman
Road
✔
Leyton Orient Brisbane
Road
✔
Lincoln City Sincil Bank
✔
Middlesbrough * Riverside
Stadium
✔
Millwall The Den
✔
Morecambe Globe
Arena
✔
Newport County Rodney
Parade
✔
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 37
Norwich City Carrow
Road
✔
Peterborough United London
Road
✔
Portsmouth Fratton
Park
✔
Queens Park Rangers Loftus
Road
✔
Scunthorpe United Glanford
Park
✔
Southampton St Mary’s
✔ ✔
West Ham United London
Stadium
✔
Table 12: Eredivisie Stadia Flood Threat
Club Stadium
Complete
Flood From
SLR
Partial
Flood
From SLR
Complete
Annual
Flood
Partial
Annual
Flood
Ajax Johan Cruij ArenA
✔
AZ Alkmaar AFAS Stadion
✔
ADO Den Haag Cars Jeans Stadium
✔
Feyernoord De Kuip
✔
FC Groningen Hitachi Capacity Mobil-
ity Stadion
✔ ✔
SC Heerenveen Abe Lenstra Stadion
✔ ✔
Sparta Rotterdam Het Kasteel
✔
FC Utrecht Stadion Galgenwaard
✔
Playing Against the Clock 38
Endnotes
1 L. Lewis, ‘Threat-to-life’ Japan heatwave
menaces Tokyo 2020 Olympics’,
Financial Times,
24 July 2018.
2 J. McCurry, “2020 Olympics: Tokyo accepts
‘painful’ decision to move marathon to
Sapporo”,
The Guardian, 1 Nov 2019.
3 VANOC (2010) Vancouver 2010 Sustainability
Report, 2009–2010, p.5.
4 R. Guisado (2017) “The Eect of Warm
Temperatures on Skiing & Snowboarding
Safety – Expert Presentation”, at https://
www.robsonforensic.com/?/articles/warm-
temperatures-skiing-snowboarding-safety-expert
5 Derman, W., Blauwet, C., Webborn, N.,
Schwellnus, M., Van de Vliet, P. and Lazarovski,
D., 2018. “Mitigating risk of injury in alpine
skiing in the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic
Winter Games: the time is now!.”,
British Journal
of Sports Medicine
2018;52:419–420.
6 Pierre-Louis, K,. Popovich, N. (2011, January 11).
Of 21 Winter Olympic Cities, Many May Soon Be
Too Warm to Host the Games.
Retrieved https://
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/11/
climate/winter-olympics-global-warming.html;
Rutty, M., Scott, D., Steiger, R. and Johnson, P.,
2015. Weather risk management at the Olympic
Winter Games.
Current Issues in Tourism, 18(10),
pp.931-946; Scott, D., Steiger, R., Rutty, M. and
Johnson, P., 2015. The future of the Olympic
Winter Games in an era of climate change.
Current Issues in Tourism, 18(10), pp.913-930;
Scott, D., Steiger, R., Rutty, M. and Fang, Y.,
2019. The changing geography of the Winter
Olympic and Paralympic Games in a warmer
world.
Current Issues in Tourism, 22(11),
pp.1301–1311.
7 G. Hondrop, “New York City Triathlon Among
Races Cancelled Due to Dangerous Heat
Wave”,
Runners World, 19 Jul 2019.
8 See the analysis, for example of B. McGuire
(2020),
Responsible Science 2, https://www.sgr.
org.uk/publications/responsible-science-no-2
“In its 5
th
Assessment Report, published in 2017,
the IPCC notes that “it is very likely that heat
waves will occur with a higher frequency and
duration.’ It does not, however, say anything
about the terrifying prospect of so-called humid
heat waves. These arise when the wet bulb
temperature – a measure of the combination
of heat and humidity – reaches 35°C. Such
conditions, if sustained, are unsurvivable, so
that even a t and healthy human in the shade
has only about six hours to live. The required
combination of heat and humidity has not been
encountered in modern times, but the conditions
were almost met in parts of Iran in July 2015.
Looking ahead, the second half of the century
is forecast to see humid heat waves aecting
the Ganges and Indus valleys of South Asia,
the Persian Gulf and China. Most at risk is the
North China Plain, where widespread irrigation
is predicted to contribute to the occurrence of
humid heat waves later this century that could
aect up to 400 million people under a business
as usual emissions scenario.”
9 Australian Conservation Foundation (2019),
Caught behind: Climate change, extreme heat
and the Boxing Day Test, at https://www.acf.org.
au/caught_behind_climate_change_extreme_
heat_and_the_boxing_day_test
10 AP, “Heat wave hits Australian Open”, 14 Jan
2020.
11 B. Graham, “‘It’s dangerous out there’: Players
suer despite heat policy as US Open swelters”,
The Guardian, 29 August 2018.
12 “High Court bans use of Pavana water for IPL
2018 matches in Pune” 4 May 2018, https://
www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/high-court-
bans-use-of-pavana-water-for-ipl-2018-matches-
in-pune/story-w7KKT36K5mGSmuwR1yoQFK.html
13 T. Aldred, “Drought in southern Africa
means cricket must look hard in the mirror”,
The Guardian, 28 Jan 2020.
14 M. Sa, “Pollution stops play at Delhi Test match
as bowlers struggle to breathe”,
The Guardian,
3 Dec 2017.
15 C. Nicolussi, ‘Like smoking 80 cigarettes a day’:
Cricketers battle through SCG smog”,
Sydney
Morning Herald
, 10 December 2019.
16 M. Campelli, “Air pollution: Tackling sport’s
invisible threat”, https://sustainabilityreport.
com/2020/04/23/air-pollution-tackling-sports-
invisible-threat/; Lichter, A., Pestel, N. and
Sommer, E., 2017. Productivity eects of air
pollution: Evidence from professional soccer.
Labour Economics, 48, pp.54–66; Archsmith,
J., Heyes, A. and Saberian, S., 2018. Air quality
and error quantity: Pollution and performance
in a high-skilled, quality-focused occupation.
Journal of the Association of Environmental and
Resource Economists
, 5(4), pp.827–863.
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 39
17 BASIS (2019) Hit For Six: The Impact of Climate
Change on Cricket
, BASIS, http://basis.org.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2019/09/Hit-for-Six-The-Impact-of-
Climate-Change-on-Cricket.pdf
18 BBC Sport, “Storm Ciara: Man City v West
Ham, rugby, WSL matches, horse racing all
o”, 9 Feb 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/
football/51428615
19
Op cit, BASIS, (2019).
20 The Climate Coalition (2018)
Game Changer:
How Climate Change is Impacting Sports in
the UK
, https://static1.squarespace.com/
static/58b40fe1be65940cc4889d33/t/5a85
c91e9140b71180ba91e0/1518717218061/
The+Climate+Coalition_Game+Changer.pdf
21 Sports and Recreation Alliance (2014)
Alliance
Survey: Bad Weather and the lack of facility
investment is impacting participation gures
.
22 UNEP, “Climate change is wiping out the secret
to Fiji’s international rugby success”, https://www.
unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/climate-
change-wiping-out-secret-jis-international-rugby-
success
23 Dan R. Reineman, Leif N. Thomas, Margaret R.
Caldwell, “Using local knowledge to project sea
level rise impacts on wave resources in California”,
Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 138, 15
March 2017, Pages 181–191.
24 T. Kershaw, “St Andrews, Carnoustie and Donald
Trump’s Doonbeg: The golf courses gasping for
breath against rising tide”,
The Independent, 22
May 2019.
25 J. Welsh, “Carlisle United and their two-year battle
to get over Storm Desmond”, 18 Feb 2018, https://
www.planetfootball.com/in-depth/carlisle-united-
two-year-battle-get-storm-desmond/
26 Data calculated at https://coastal.climatecentral.
org/map/11/-0.118/51.4848/?theme=sea_
level_rise&map_type=coastal_dem_
comparison&contiguous=true&elevation_
model=best_available&forecast_
year=2050&pathway=rcp45&percentile=p50&return_
level=return_level_1&slr_model=kopp_2014. All
risks are relevant to both medium and high
emission scenarios unless stated otherwise.Annual
ood: Local sea level projection plus the added
height of a local annual ood. An annual ood’s
height above sea level is exceeded once per year
on average. Middle range scenario risk from:
Kopp
et al. (2014). “Probabilistic 21st and 22nd
century sea‐level projections at a global network
of tide‐gauge sites.”,
Earth’s Future, 2(8), 383–406.;
High range scenario risk from: Kopp
et al. (2017).
Evolving understanding of Antarctic ice-sheet
physics and ambiguity in probabilistic sea-level
projections.
Earth’s Future, 5(12), 1217–1233.;
Flood height increments outside US from: Muis
et
al.
(2016). “A global reanalysis of storm surges
and extreme sea levels”.
Nature Communications
7:11969.; Flood height increments inside US from:
Buchanan
et al. (2016), “Allowances for evolving
coastal ood risk under uncertain local sea-level
rise”,
Climatic Change, 137(3-4), 347–362.
27 Note, these estimates are of CO
2
e, (CO
2
equivalent)
as greenhouse gas emissions are made up of CO
2
and other gases, and are conjoined in the data to
give a gure that is equivalent to the atmospheric
consequences of all of these gasses combined if it
was all CO
2
.
28 UNEP (2009) I
ndependent Environmental Assessment:
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
https://www.uncclearn.
org/sites/default/les/inventory/unep36.pdf; IOC
(2010) London 2012 – Carbon Footprint Study
https://www.mma.gov.br/estruturas/255/_arquivos/
carbon_footprint_study_relat_255.pdf; Rio
Organising Committee for Olympic and Paralympic
Games [ROCOPG] (2014)
Carbon Footprint
Management Report Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic
Games
, https://nachhaltigersport.les.wordpress.
com/2016/04/carbon-footprint-management-report-
rio-2016.pdf
29 Econ Pöyry (2009)
Feasibility study for a carbon
neutral 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,
https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/
les/docs/carbonneutralwc_feasibility_study.
pdf ; FIFA (2013)
Summary of the 2014 FIFA World
Cup Brazil™ Carbon Footprint,
https://resources.
fa.com/image/upload/summary-of-the-2014-
fa-world-cup-brazil-carbon-footprint-2835150.
pdf?cloudid=kcvvlnivbq3gs9ksnagy; FIFA (2016)
Greenhouse Gas Accounting Report: 2018 FIFA
World Cup
; https://resources.fa.com/image/
upload/greenhouse-gas-accounting-report.
pdf?cloudid=bs36nsonccbtfs5v7ppu
30 Sportcal (2017)
The Global Sports Impact Report,
https://www.sportcal.com/PDF/GSI/Report/GSI_
Report_2017_Sample_Pack_v1.pdf
31
Fluminense GHG Inventory Report (2014) http://
www.uminense.com.br/site/futebol/wp-content/
uploads/2016/06/Report_Fluminense-FC_
version4-1.pdf. This however, seems like a gross
underestimate. If, for example, Fluminense played a
Copa Libertadores game in Santiago and took fty
people, let alone any fans, that would account for
50 tons of carbon alone. If they took just 1000 fans
that’s 1,000 tonnes – a fth of the club’s supposed
annual emissions.
32 See V Wolfsburg annual CST report, here
for example, http://emag.v-wolfsburg.de.s3.
amazonaws.com/CSR_Progress_Report_2018/
page_26.html.
33
Greenhouse gas emissions as a result of spectators
travelling to football in England
(Dosomu, Colbeck
& Bragg, 2017) https://core.ac.uk/download/
pdf/86412956.pdf
Playing Against the Clock 40
34 GHG Emissions: Contributions Made by Football Clubs in
England
(Dosumu, Bragg & Colbeck, 2014) https://www.
researchgate.net/publication/266678664_Greenhouse_
Gas_Emissions_Contributions_Made_by_Football_Clubs_
in_England
35 Pereira, Filimonau & Ribeiro, (2019) ‘Score a goal for
climate: Assessing the carbon footprint of travel patterns
of the English Premier League clubs”, https://www-
sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.sussex.ac.uk/science/article/
pii/S0959652619312181
36 See: http://sustainability.nhl.com/report/#!/innovate/
reducing-emissions
37 The Business Research Company, (2020)
Sports Global
Market Opportunities And Strategies To 2022
.
38 On the anti golf movement see,
inter alia, Stolle-
McAllister, J. (2004). Contingent Hybridity: The Cultural
Politics of Tepoztl‡ n’s Anti-Golf Movement. Identities.
Global Studies in Culture and Power, 11(2), 195-213;
Pleumarom, A. (2016). Fighting Toxic Greens: The Global
Anti-Golf Movement (GAG’M) Revisited. In
Sport, Protest
and Globalisation
(pp. 151–179). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
39 The many mechanisms by which hosts evade the
IOCs environmental targets , as well as the IOC’s own
culpability in the process, are covered in: Geeraert,
A., & Gauthier, R. (2018) “Out-of-control Olympics:
Why the IOC is unable to ensure an environmentally
sustainable Olympic Games”,
Journal of Environmental
Policy & Planning
, 20(1), 16–30. The article emphasises
the degree to which the IOC does not seriously monitor
requirements and does not impose any sanctions in
the case of hosts do not live up to environmental
requirements. See also, on how denitions of
sustainability are so vague that the IOCs environmental
commitments are undermined, Caratti, P., & Ferraguto,
L. (2012) “The Role of Environmental Issues in Mega-
Events Planning and Management Processes: Which
Factors Count?”, In
Olympic Games, Mega-Events and Civil
Societies
(pp. 109–125). Palgrave Macmillan, London ;
Gauthier, R. (2016) “Olympic game host selection and
the law: A qualitative analysis”,
Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports
LJ,
23, 1; Paquette, J., Stevens, J., & Mallen, C. (2011)
“The interpretation of environmental sustainability by
the International Olympic Committee and Organizing
Committees of the Olympic Games from 1994 to 2008.”,
Sport in Society, 14(03), 355–369.
40 Environmental Assessment of the Athens 2004 Olympic
Games (WWF, 2004) https://wwf.panda.org/?14215/
environmental-assessment-of-the-athens-2004;
Independent Environmental Assessment: Beijing 2008
Olympic Games (UNEP, 2009) https://www.uncclearn.
org/sites/default/les/inventory/unep36.pdf; London
2012 – Carbon Footprint Study (IOC, 2010).
41 Vancouver 2010 Sustainability Report https://stillmed.
olympic.org/Documents/Games_Vancouver_2010/
VANOC_Sustainability_Report-EN.pdf; J. McCurry and
E. Howard, “Olympic organisers destroy ‘sacred’ South
Korean forest to create ski run”,
The Guardian, 16 Sep
2015.
42 The UN Sports for Climate Action Framework can
be seen here: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/les/
resource/Sports_for_Climate_Action_Declaration_and_
Framework_0.pdf
43 Geeraert, A., 2018.
Sports Governance Observer 2018. An
assessment of good governance in ve international sports
federations.
Play the Game/Danish Institute for Sports
Studies.; Geeraert, A., 2018.
National Sports Governance
Observer. Final report.
Play the Game/Danish Institute for
Sports Studies.
44 Johansen, C. F. (2019),
Sports Governance Observer 2019,
Play the Game/Danish Institute for Sports Studies.
45 The full list of current signatories can be seen here
https://unfccc.int/climate-action/sectoral-engagement/
sports-for-climate-action/participants-in-the-sports-for-
climate-action-framework
46 An informative, if somewhat over-glossy, survey of
these kinds of initiatives can be found in UEFA/WWF
(2018)
Playing for Our Planet: How Sports Wins by Being
Sustainable.
47 See, “UEFA’s pledge towards an environmentally
conscious UEFA EURO 2020”, 27 Nov 2019, https://www.
uefa.com/insideuefa/news/newsid=2634011.html
48 World Athletics Sustainability Strategy 2020–2030,
can be found here: https://www.worldathletics.org/
development/sustainable-development
49 World Sailing Sustainability Agenda 2030 can be seen
here: https://www.sailing.org/about/Sustainability.php#.
XtTo2C2ZM_U
50 F1’s sustainability strategy can be seen at: https://
corp.formula1.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/
Environmental-sustainability-Corp-website-vFINAL.pdf
51 S. Morris, “Forest Green Rovers named world’s rst UN
certied carbon-neutral football club”,
The Guardian,
30 Jul 2018.
52 A. Sten-Ziemons, “Bundesliga: United against climate
change?”, 14 Jan 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/
bundesliga-united-against-climate-change/a-51944194
53 https://sustainabilityreport.com/2020/06/04/world-
champions-and-sustainability-champions/
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 41
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the many people who
have helped along the way: Rachel
O’Brien and the RSA for getting me
started; Andrew Simms and the Rapid
Transition Alliance for advice and
contributions; Jens Sejer Andersen,
Kirsten Sparre and Play the Game, for
backing this report; Manda Brookman;
Hans Bruyninckx from the European
Environmental Agency and Arnout
Geeraert from Utrecht University; Amos
Pakpahan and the generous research
budget of Pitzer College.
Biography
David Goldblatt is a writer, journalist
and academic. His books include Social
Theory and the Environment (1996),
The Ball is Round: A Global History of
Football (2006), The Game of or Lives: The
Making and Meaning of English Football
(2014), The Games: A Global History of
the Olympics (2016) and most recently
The Age of Football: The Global Game in
the Twenty First Century (2019). He is a
visiting Professor at Pitzer College, Los
Angeles. He can be found on twitter at
@davidsgoldblatt.
Playing Against the Clock 42
Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case For Rapid Change 43
The Rapid Transition
Alliance
This report is published by the Rapid
Transition Alliance, which is kindly
supported by the KR Foundation. The
climate is changing faster than we are
and the Alliance is a international initiative
asking how we can speed up? We are
learning from where, when and how good
things happen quickly. We’re gathering
and sharing evidence-based hope, to
remove excuses for inaction.
For more information you can contact
us at:
Web: rapidtransition.org
Twitter: @RapidTransition
Facebook: @rapidtransitionalliance
The Rapid Transition Allianceis
coordinated by a small group of people
drawn from theNew Weather Institute,
theSchool of Global Studiesat the
University of Sussex, and theESRC STEPS
Centreat the Science Policy Research Unit
(SPRU) and theInstitute of Development
Studies, and with help from our friends,
colleagues and supporters.
Play the Game
Play the Game is an international
conference and communication
initiative aiming to strengthen the
ethical foundation of sport and promote
democracy, transparency and freedom of
expression in sport.
playthegame.org
KR Foundation
The mission of KR Foundation is to
address the root causes of climate change
and environmental degradation.
Playing Against the Clock 44
The climate is changing faster than we
are – how do we speed up? The Rapid
Transition Alliance is a global initiative
learning from where, when and how
good things happen quickly. We're
gathering and sharing evidence-based
hope, to remove excuses for inaction.
For more information you can
contact us at:
web rapidtransition.org
Twitter @RapidTransition
Facebook @rapidtransitionalliance
June 2020
This report is published by the Rapid Transition Alliance.
The Rapid Transition Alliance is coordinated by the New Weather
Institute, the STEPS Centre at the Institute of Development Studies,
and the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex.
The Alliance was made possible by support from the KR Foundation.
