Al Pacino, innovation, events, and more
Round-up #15
It’s in the context of a different sport, but to kick things off here’s some Al Pacino-led inspiration on the global sustainable development goals.
Stirring stuff to get us going!
Since the last fortnightly round-up there has been an essential guest post here in the newsletter by Thom Rawson of Sustainable Football on how football clubs should report their carbon footprint.
More generally, it’s been super busy out there, and given the amount of great stuff happening I may revisit the newsletter format. Ping an email if you have any views. And without further ado, let’s jump in …
Extreme Weather
Gary Linker saying "I'd like to see Fifa worry more about climate change" had over 1m views on social media and was part of a wider BBC report on how the climate crisis could impact the men's World Cup in 2026.
The Mirror has a further in-depth investigation on FIFA’s approach to the climate. It includes mention of FIFA saying it would be “very challenging to reduce our carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030” and a “long journey” to net zero. It also reports the 2026 World Cup sustainability strategy will be published ‘early next year’ (rather than in 2023 as previously planned).
What does extreme weather mean for your club? Kumu Kumar, Head of Zurich Resilience Solutions UK says
“Clubs at every tier of the game should take steps to identify and address their risks. The costs of inaction are far greater”
This was in an article for Inside World Football that says that “almost half of English stadia face climate hazards”. This is based on new climate modelling for an unpublished study by Zurich UK.
In other sports, a powerful read in The Guardian notes that nearly a dozen US football players have died of heat in recent years as teams reckon with a changing climate. Elsewhere, The Week looks at how climate change is impacting sports around the world.
Transport
73 per cent of those who travel to away games want to bring down their carbon footprint from travelling says polling for Trainline. Their unpublished research, reported in summary, shows Premier League away fans could cut 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the remainder of the season by substituting cars for trains. So what’s stopping them?
Perhaps a new academic paper can shed some light. It suggests that perceived environmental benefits and being an environmental role model had a positive effect on preferences for environmentally friendly stadium travel.
In a separate development, in response to stories about plans for 6.30pm Sunday kick-offs in the Premier League, the Football Supporters’ Association says:
“The football authorities and clubs like to showcase their green credentials too, but this seems to go out of the window for TV. Sunday evening KOs mean more fans travelling by car, as public transport is scarce, which undermines aims to reduce the game’s environmental impact.”
Events
It’s certainly a busy time of year! Events coming up include:
The big annual Sport Positive Summit kicking off next week in London aiming to accelerate positive climate action and ambition. The BBC Green Sport Awards will be presented there. Congratulations to all those nominated.
As part of Scotland’s Climate Week there will be an online Climate Action in Sport event on 28th September including footballer Katie Rood.
Also online, the Sport for Development Coalition host a conference on Sport for Development and Climate Justice on 18th October which includes Mark Doidge of Loughborough University on his latest research on football and climate change.
And those just gone include:
The second DFL Sustainability Forum in Germany. Can we expect other leagues to follow suit with conferences of their own?
The European Association for Sport Management annual conference in Belfast. It included a presentation by Professor Mike Weed asking ‘Does Sport Care Enough About Climate Change?’ which proposed a number of innovations. Videos of the presentations are due to follow.
The Sustainable Sports Symposium at the University of Bayreuth. I’m not sure if there will be a read-out of this one, but lots of interesting presentations.
UEFA
“By continuing to promote polluting companies on the centre-stage of international football, UEFA is complicit in the climate crisis”
Frank Huisingh, Founder, Fossil Free Football in The Mirror as UEFA is urged to act on a Russian oil company sponsoring a Champions League club. It comes as Badvertising launched a toolkit on how to screen out polluting sponsors in commercial deals.
Elsewhere, UEFA launched an interesting ‘Champions Innovate’ initiative with the Greater London Authority in the context of the next Champions League Final. It identifies a number of sustainability challenges that start-ups' can propose solutions to, and win funding and support to deliver. For some more ideas for football see below!
Strategies
The Scottish FA has launched a new Scottish Football Social Responsibility Strategy. I’ve not looked in-depth so far, but a few commitments have jumped out: making an environmental policy a requirement of club licensing and accreditation; working in partnership with Government at national and local to achieve climate goals; and planning to become a UN Sports for Climate Change signatory. Any further insights are welcome!
And if anyone is taking on the challenge of looking at the various national football strategies that have now emerged across the piece, I’d love to hear more!
Players and Clubs
Players
Katie Rood and David Wheeler join Pledgeball’s Katie Cross for this new 90min Climate Conversation podcast.
FIFPRO on Sofie Junge Pedersen winning the inaugural Marcus Rashford Award at the World Football Summit
Rémy Descamps, footballer and green entrepreneur in Ecolosport
Amy Turner has joined Planet League as an Ambassador
Clubs
Liverpool showed their support for the UN's Global Goals Week and announced “In the coming months, the club is set to announce another series of ambitious targets for The Red Way”
Rafael Muela, President of the Real Betis Foundation talks about the sustainability work of the club that has led to international recognition
Wolves have set out several initiatives they have to improve biodiversity and encourage wildlife back to their training ground
How Arsenal FC used storage to become sustainability champions
Elsewhere
“Sports organisations … have great power due to their highly engaged global audience. They have a responsibility to use that power for the betterment of society and the environment.” from How Sporting Events Can Score Big on Sustainability. INSEAD Business School.
Two new podcasts from The Sustainability Report:
A fantastic Sport Ecology Reading List
A call for academic papers on “Sport Marketing in an Era of Sustainability” for a special issue of the Journal of Strategic Marketing
You may say I’m a dreamer …
Before the global Climate Ambition Summit, last week, a High Ambition Coalition of 17 World Leaders called for faster, stronger action to respond to the climate crisis. Wouldn’t it be good to see a High Ambition Coalition of Football Clubs too?
The new Fossil to Clean Campaign brings together several leading international NGO’s and sets out principles for global fossil fuel phase-out that business can align with. Which clubs and governing bodies will be the first to align with them?
“Private sector support for meaningful national level climate policy is needed more than ever” says this report by Influence Map. What should strategic climate policy engagement by clubs and governing bodies prioritise? And is the intervention on HS2 by the US owners of Birmingham City, a sign of things to come on policy engagement?
A Net-Zero Data Public Utility is due to be released as a ‘proof-of-concept” at climate talks later this year. It may sound dry but is super important and seeks to address the “lack of accessible, high-quality and comparable climate data [which] remains one of the most significant barriers to achieving a global net-zero economy.” Is it also an opportunity to take the draft guidance on carbon reporting and develop a utility for football too?
If you’ve made to here, thank you and take a bow for giving it your full attention. You clearly should ‘like’ and share with others. As ever, if you have any suggestions, comments or corrections do drop a line. Otherwise, see you next time.
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
footballandclimatechange@gmail.com
LinkedIn | Twitter