Insights 2024.07.26

Climate change action in sports

table of contents

Zeroboard Research Institute AnalystMizuki Mizuki Nabeshima

The 2024 Summer Olympics, "Paris 2024," is fast approaching. One of the key points of interest for this year's Olympics is the environmental efforts, including the declaration that "the carbon footprint of the Olympics will be halved." *1 As the sports world is also affected by climate change, we explore what kind of efforts are required.

Impact of climate change

Climate change is having a variety of impacts on the sports world. Impacts are already becoming apparent, including an increased risk of heatstroke due to rising temperatures, deterioration of stadiums and an increased risk of injury due to droughts and floods, and changes to Events dates due to extreme temperatures. Just recently, world-class athletes and researchers, including race walker Yusuke Suzuki, spoke out about the dangers of competing in extreme heat that will be exacerbated by climate change *2 , and well-known athletes are also calling for the need to take measures against climate change.

Meanwhile, what impact does the sports world have on climate change? While it varies depending on the sport, emissions can be thought of as being from facility construction, Energy use, food arrangements, travel, and so on. One notable aspect is the large amount of travel-related emissions, which are included in indirect emissions (Scope 3). Travel includes the movement of staff and athletes as well as spectators, and in the case of world championships, where there is a lot of international travel, more than 70% of indirect emissions can be emissions related to travel.

Breakdown of emission amount from the international tennis tournament Wimbledon *3 . Even within Scope 3, emission amount related to flights for staff, players, and related parties account for more than 70%.

Sport for Climate Action Framework

Given this background, there is hope that the sports world may be able to take action to reduce emission amount not only from sports teams themselves, but also from people involved in sports.

One of these is the Sports for Climate Action Framework *4 . Launched in 2018 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it is a framework for the global sports community to come together and take action on climate change issues. Of the five principles, principle 5 states, "Push for climate change action through communication." This shows the sports community's determination to take action and demonstrate leadership by leveraging the information-disseminating power of sports and the influence it has on fans to fulfill its social responsibility to protect the global environment.

Examples of initiatives in Japan

Efforts have also begun in Japan. The Sport For Smile Planet League "Elite Eight Program," run by the general incorporated association Sport For Smile, supports the small but elite top teams in Japan's sports world in promoting climate change measures and appealing to fans. Only a few organizations from Japan have signed the UN framework mentioned above, and our company is cooperating as a strategic partner to improve the current situation in which the practice of measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emission amount, which is considered essential worldwide, has not progressed sufficiently. *5

summary

Sports have the power to share passion and excitement with fans and spread important information for society. I hope that the Paris Olympics will give us a glimpse of a future where enjoying sports while taking action for the future of the planet will become the norm.

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＜Reference source＞
*1) Paris Olympics: "Reduce the carbon footprint of the Games by 50%"July 3, 2024
https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/carbon-method
*2) BASIS "Rings of Fire Ⅱ"July 24, 2024, P24 "Yusuke Suzuki – RACEWALKER, JAPAN"
https://basis.org.uk/resource/rings-of-fire-2/
*3) Source: AELTC "Our Operational Emissions"July 22, 2024
https://www.wimbledon.com/pdf/AELTC%20Sustainability%20chart%202023%20final.pdf
*4) "Sport for Climate Action Framework,"July 22, 2024
https://www.unic.or.jp/files/c6509b8eadff5384180a1fd439669a4b.pdf
*5) "Sport For Smile Planet League and Zeroboard Collaborate to Accelerate Climate Change Response with the Power of Sports,"July 3, 2024
https:// zeroboard.jp/news/press-release/2750/

Article author

Mizuki Nabeshima(Zeroboard Research Institute Analyst)
Since 2017, she has been working at an environmental NGO, where she is responsible for Education, membership management, finance and accounting, and general affairs. She is also responsible for research into natural capital information disclosure. She graduated from the College of Bioresources, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba (forest ecology).