Australian sport is failing to engage with or adapt to the climate crisis, opening organisations up to serious financial and legal risks, a new report has found.
Whether it is extreme heat, bushfire smoke or flooding, the impact of climate change on sport in the country has been evident over the past decade – affecting players, fans, officials and infrastructure from the grassroots level to elite competitions.
While players and consumers are increasingly demanding climate action, the joint report from the Environmental Defenders Office and FrontRunners found sporting organisations are not adequately responding to the threat.
The chief executive of the Environmental Defenders Office, David Morris, said the report, titled Sports, Climate Change and Legal Liability, showed “like in many areas on climate change, Australia is coming from a long way behind.”
“Our sporting organisations – whether you’re talking about smaller or grassroots organisations through to some of our most major sporting codes – are not dealing with this like the fundamental issue it is,” Morris said.
The analysis of public documents from Australia’s top 314 sporting organisations showed that less than 1% mention climate change in their annual reports, just 6% reference climate change or sustainability in their strategic plans and only 3% have any guidance on the issue on their websites.
Of Australia’s biggest sports, rugby league was one of the worst performing on climate change and sustainability action, with its eight governing bodies having no climate initiatives besides heat or extreme weather guidance.
“That stands in stark contrast to how climate change is being viewed in other parts of the world,” Morris said.
“[The climate crisis is] going to make it harder for us to play, it’s going to make for increased risks of participation through health and injury, it’s going to make sport cost a lot more. And it’s most certainly going to affect grassroots participation and at-risk and vulnerable communities the most.
“The impacts of climate change are going to increasingly and fundamentally change our experience of sport. Grappling with that is a legal thing that people involved in sports administration have to grapple with now.”
The report identified areas of liability for sporting organisations such as personal injury, contractual implications, financial impact disclosures and reputational damage.
An organisation with a rudimentary heat policy, for example, must consider whether it is fulfilling its duty of care to participants, referees and spectators, or be liable to personal injury claims.
“In another context, what do you do about the repayment of ticket funds in the event you do have to cancel an event?” Morris said.
“You want to make sure that you have gone line and verse through your patron contracts, and made sure that those contracts are grappling with the impacts of climate change. And if you haven’t done that due diligence on your contracts, you could find yourself really badly caught out in terms of the impact on your sport and on your business.”
The report made eight recommendations, and because Australian sport is only now starting to address the climate crisis, there are some easy actions organisations can take, according to FrontRunners chief executive, Emma Pocock.
“At the very least, we’d love to see [climate change] being considered at board level and being part of the risk register of sports businesses, and making sure that they have those policies in place to protect players, officials and spectators,” she said.
“Fans really want to see this kind of leadership from sporting organisations … so there’s a big upside for sports organisations in communicating about this issue.
“But also, [while] sports emissions are actually quite small in the scheme of global emissions, the power that [sporting organisations] have to influence the culture on accepting, with enthusiasm, climate solutions, is really outsized. And so we think that there’s a real leadership role that sport can play in this space that they’ve been absent from.”
Dr Paul Sinclair, campaigns director at the Australian Conservation Foundation which was not involved in the report, said it showed Australian sport was a global laggard in addressing the issue.
“Looking at it as an Olympic Games on action on climate change from sport, I would be surprised if Australia had a single medal,” he said.
“If you listen very carefully, to hear the voices of those sporting organisations speaking in support of climate action, you will hear nothing. It’s a failure of their core responsibility to act as stewards of games that Australians love.
“They’re meant to act in ways that protect the games that people love, in perpetuity. So if they take that seriously, they need to be considered taking action on climate change, because there isn’t a sport in Australia that won’t be impacted by climate.”
