Game, Set, Match: Calling Time On Climate Inaction

GAME, SET, MATCH: CALLING TIME ON CLIMATE INACTION
CLIMATECOUNCIL.ORG.AU

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Dr Martin Rice Head of Research
Ella Weisbrot Researcher (Climate Solutions)
Dr Simon Bradshaw Researcher (Climate Science & Impacts)

Published by the Climate Council of Australia Limited.

ISBN:

978-1-922404-15-2 (print) 978-1-922404-14-5 (digital)

© Climate Council of Australia Ltd 2021.

This work is copyright the Climate Council of Australia Ltd. All material contained in this work is copyright the Climate Council of Australia Ltd except where a third party source is indicated.

Climate Council of Australia Ltd copyright material is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License. To view a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org.au.

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Authors: Martin Rice, Ella Weisbrot, Simon Bradshaw, Will Steffen, Lesley Hughes, Hilary Bambrick, Kate Charlesworth, Nicki Hutley, and Lisa Upton.

— Cover image: ‘IMG_0602.JPG’ by Flickr user Graham Jenkin.
This report is printed on 100% recycled paper.

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Professor Will Steffen Councillor (Climate Science & Impacts)
Professor Lesley Hughes Councillor (Climate Science & Impacts)
Professor Hilary Bambrick Councillor (Health)
Dr Kate Charlesworth Councillor (Health)
Nicki Hutley Councillor (Economics)
Lisa Upton Communications Director

CLIMATE COUNCIL i

Contents

Key findings...................................................................................................................................................................................... ii

Foreword............................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................................. 3

2. Sport and climate change in Australia...............................................................................................................................7

2.1 Climate change and extreme weather events

9

2.2 Extreme heat

10

2.3 Bushfires

19

2.4 Drought

22

2.5 Intense rainfall

24

3. Global sport and climate change...................................................................................................................................... 30

4. Climate impacts and sport: health, economic and infrastructure......................................................................... 33

4.1. Health risks of sport in a supercharged climate

33

4.2 Economic impacts

43

4.3 Infrastructure

45

5. Future climate and sport in Australia.............................................................................................................................. 47

6. Future climate and global sport.........................................................................................................................................51

7. Sport: a powerful voice and springboard for climate action.................................................................................... 53

7.1 Sport: a force for climate action

54

7.2 International institutions as a platform for climate action in sport

55

7.3 Athletes and sport using their powerful voice for climate action

57

7.4 Powering sport with renewable energy

59

7.5 Setting targets and developing strategies to reduce emissions

63

7.6 Changing the schedule of matches and events

66

7.7 Encouraging active and public transport to venues

67

7.8 Climate-friendly corporate sponsorship

69

8. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................................................71

Appendix 1: climate future of Australia’s sporting capital cities..................................................................................... 73

References....................................................................................................................................................................................... 76

Image credits.................................................................................................................................................................................. 85

ii GAME, SET, MATCH: CALLING TIME ON CLIMATE INACTION

Key findings

1
Australia’s summer of sport is under threat from climate change.
› Climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), is worsening extreme weather events and disrupting Australian sport.

2
By 2040, heatwaves in Sydney and Melbourne could reach highs of 50°C, threatening the viability of summer sport as it is currently played.
› Heatwaves are becoming hotter, lasting longer and occurring more often.

› Australia’s summer sports calendar, which includes Big Bash League (BBL) cricket, AFLW games, the Tour Down Under cycling race, the Australian Open tennis, A and W-League football and community sports is threatened by climate change.

› While 2010-2019 was the warmest decade over the past century, it is also likely to be the coolest decade of the century ahead.
› 2019 was Australia’s warmest year on record, with 33 days that exceeded 39°C – more than the total number between 1960 and 2018.

› If global emissions continue to increase, Australian sports will have to make significant changes, such as playing summer games in the evening or switching schedules to spring and autumn.

3
No athlete, whether an elite professional or a community player, is immune to our increasingly hot summers, which are a health hazard for those playing and watching sport.
› Climate change is driving longer and more intense bushfire seasons, exposing athletes and spectators to dangerous air pollution, for which professional players are a particularly sensitive group.
› Many athletes and spectators have fallen seriously ill following exposure to extreme heat in recent years. For example:
- Tennis: Temperatures at the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne have repeatedly hit +40°C with games suspended and players taken to hospital. In 2014, almost 1,000 spectators were treated for heat exhaustion.

KEY FINDINGS iii

- Triathlon: On 2 March 2016, temperatures reached 34°C in Penrith during the NSW All Schools Triathlon Championships at the nearby Sydney International Regatta Centre. Paramedics were called following reports of nine people suffering from heat exposure during the event.
- Cricket: In January 2018, at the Sydney Ashes Test, England’s captain Joe Root was hospitalised as air temperature hit 41.9°C. In December 2019, New Zealand cancelled part of a warmup match in Melbourne because the temperature was forecast to reach 45°C.
› Prolonged drought in Australia has resulted in an increase in shoulder injuries due to sport being played on harder, rainparched grounds. For example, shoulder injuries increased by 23 percent in 2001 (during the Millennium Drought), compared to 1994 levels.

4
Australian sport is worth $50 billion to the economy and employs over 220,000 people, but governments are not adequately prepared for escalating climate risks.
› None of Australia’s major sports plans, including the Federal Government’s first national sports plan, discuss or tackle the implications of climate change on sport.
› Climate disruption is a growing cost for sport in Australia, including infrastructure maintenance and rising insurance premiums.
› Elite venues may be able to afford expensive upgrades, but local venues will not.
› Australia can help protect sport by becoming part of the global solution to climate change by rapidly and deeply reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to renewable energy and storage.

5
Sport is a contributor to climate change, but it can also be an integral part of the solution.
› Sporting clubs and codes contribute to climate change but can rapidly cut their own greenhouse gas emissions by changing the way they build venues, power events, travel and by cutting waste.
› Athletes and other sporting leaders can become powerful advocates for change, both within sport and outside of it, by using their star appeal to educate and influence others.
› Professional and community sports can switch sponsorship from fossil fuel-backed companies to ones that invest in climate solutions.
› All sporting codes and leagues should have science-based, regularly updated policies that cover heat, bushfire smoke and other extreme weather events to protect athletes and spectators.

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1 GAME, SET, MATCH: CALLING TIME ON CLIMATE INACTION

Foreword

As a kid growing up in Zimbabwe I knew Australia was a sporting nation. The absolute dominance of Australia’s cricket teams, the Wallabies winning the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Cathy Freeman winning gold in the 400m at the Sydney Olympics, Ian Thorpe smashing records in the pool. Now, as an Australian, I know this passion firsthand.

We watch sport, we talk about sport, we play sport; from the Boxing Day Test to footy finals fever, from early mornings paddling out at breaks around the country to park runs in hundreds of cities and towns. Every weekend thousands of boys and girls take to fields, courts, pitches and ovals to have fun, test themselves and learn skills that will serve them throughout their life, while weekend warriors run around with their mates years after their bodies have told them it’s time to pick another hobby.
Unfortunately, the climate crisis is threatening the way of life we love.
We’ve seen soaring temperatures at the tennis with forced early retirements at the Australian Open. Bushfire smoke led to the cancellation of summer sporting events and relocation of matches and training. My old team, the ACT Brumbies, along with the Canberra Raiders, had to relocate their preseasons during the bushfires of 2019/20. Insurance premiums have risen dramatically for local clubs in the expanding fire and flood-prone parts of the country and prolonged droughts cancelled games and entire seasons.

Unfortunately, the climate crisis is threatening the way of life we love.

FOREWORD 2

Whether you’re a professional athlete or one of the millions of Australians playing or watching their favourite sport on weekends, things are going to get worse unless we act now.
It’s not just sport, Australia stands to lose so much from the breakdown of the climate as we’ve known it. We live on a continent of incredible and unique beauty – the Great Barrier Reef, the best beaches in the world, ancient forests, animals not found anywhere else. But we also live in a climate of extremes – extremes that will worsen dramatically if climate change remains unchecked.
As the developed country that stands to lose the most from inaction, we also stand to gain the most from bold climate action. With an economy built on the back of our mineral wealth, we find ourselves with the unique opportunity to transition our workforce and industries and become a renewable superpower. It will take courage to make these changes but there’s no reason we can’t lead the world on climate action and build an even stronger economy.
As an athlete reading through the findings in this Climate Council report I couldn’t help but think that, while sport’s future is more uncertain than ever, its power has never been more important.
We often hear from our politicians that sport and politics shouldn’t mix but as South African President, Nelson Mandela famously said, “Sport has the power to overcome old divisions and create the bond of common aspirations.”

As the following pages demonstrate, the climate crisis we are facing poses an existential threat to the future of sport, as well as the people and places we love. It also shows how little sport is currently doing to tackle this challenge – which means there is huge opportunity for sport to lift its game and lead.
This is the greatest challenge we have ever faced and, while our politicians love to delay taking serious climate action while reminding us that we have a relatively small population, we are a country used to punching above our weight. We’ve seen that time and again from our sporting heroes on the world stage.
It’s time for athletes, sporting organisations and all of us to use that power, to step up, speak up and lead the transformation to a better future for all of us. If we take that attitude, and the wealth of resources at our disposal, we can rise to the challenge and face this together. We can build a future where we all thrive.
David Pocock Former Wallabies rugby union player, Co-founder, FrontRunners

3 GAME, SET, MATCH: CALLING TIME ON CLIMATE INACTION

1. Introduction

Sport is a major part of Australian culture. Every weekend, millions of Australians participate in, watch or discuss sport. Sporting legends are idolised and our national teams and clubs are revered. Australia punches above its weight, often topping the tables and podium on the international stage. Mega sporting events such as the AFL and NRL grand finals and the women’s T20 World Cup final are watched by millions and the Australian Tennis Open Final, one of the world’s four ‘Grand Slam’ tournaments, is a major event on the global sporting calendar. Our elite and community sports infrastructure is world class.

Sport encompasses many different activities from casual participation, through community clubs and organised activities, to professional sports. In Australia, at all levels we both participate and watch, and one third of all volunteering (1.8 million people) is sports-related (BCG 2017). It is estimated that the full spectrum of Australian sports-related activities is worth at least $39 billion, or about 2% of GDP, and employs more than 220,000 people (BCG 2017). However, the full value of sport goes well beyond its economic contribution, supporting physical and mental health and associated higher productivity, as well as improved educational outcomes and social capital. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that these additional outcomes increase the total value of sport to around $50 billion each year, or closer to 3% of GDP.
In towns and cities and in rural and regional areas across Australia, sport is the social fabric of communities, nurturing social networks and forging long-lasting friendships. Six out of ten Australian adults participate in sport three times a week. In 2019, three-quarters of Australian children (0-14 years old) participated in organised outside-of-school sport or physical activity at least once per year, with most of this participation being through sports clubs (62.1%) (SportAus 2020).
The Australian Sports Commission report, ‘Intergenerational Review of Australian Sport’ (BCG 2017), found that several emerging trends put Australia’s sporting future at risk. Schools are devoting fewer hours to sport and physical education and there are fewer trained sports teachers. This is despite inactivity and obesity being major

CHAPTER 01 4 INTRODUCTION

health risks, with eight out of ten Australian children not meeting the recommended activity guidelines, and two-thirds of adults and one-quarter of children being overweight or obese. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, some sports – particularly AFL, NRL, and cricket – were successfully growing and commercialising, although many others struggled to gain prominence or were unable to attract sponsorship, resulting in a widening wealth gap between the commercial, largely male, sports and the broader sports community.

1960-2018 period (BoM and CSIRO 2020). Cool season rainfall (April – October) has declined by 10-20 percent across mainland southern Australia over recent decades (BoM 2021). These trends have contributed to an increase in the length of fire seasons and to the severity of dangerous fire weather across large parts of the continent (BoM and CSIRO 2020; Abram et al 2021). On the other hand, the intensity of short duration (hourly) extreme rainfall events, often leading to flash flooding, has increased by around 10% (BoM and CSIRO 2020).

Many sports are highly dependent on favourable climatic conditions (Dingle and Mallen 2020). For example, skiing and snowboarding rely on the availability of sufficient and reliable snow, enough (but not too much) rainfall is required for good playing surfaces for cricket, football and golf, and athletes must avoid extreme heat for their safety. Climate change thus represents a significant long-term challenge facing sport in Australia. Despite this, the ‘Intergenerational Review of Australian Sport’ (BCG 2017), ‘Sport 2030’ – the Federal Government’s first national sports plan (Commonwealth of Australia 2018) and ‘The Future of Australian Sport’ (CSIRO 2013) all fail to consider climate change and its implications.
Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44°C since 1910, with most warming occurring since 1950 and every decade since then being warmer than the preceding ones (BoM and CSIRO 2020). The frequency of extreme heat events is also increasing. 2019 was Australia’s warmest year on record, with 33 days that exceeded 39°C – more than the total number observed in the entire

Climate change – driven mainly by burning fossil fuels and land clearing – is worsening extreme weather in Australia, playing havoc with both elite and grassroots-level sport. Australia’s beloved summer sports calendar, which includes Big Bash League (BBL) cricket, AFLW games, the Tour Down Under cycling race, the Australian Open tennis, A and W-League football and community sports is under threat from climate change.
“Australia’s “summer of sport” is no longer cause for celebration – it serves as a warning. Extreme weather periods will become more common and more dangerous as the new decade unfolds, prompting questions over whether football [and other sports] continues with a summer calendar” (Samantha Lewis, freelance women’s football journalist, The Guardian 2020a, online quote).

5 GAME, SET, MATCH: CALLING TIME ON CLIMATE INACTION

While sport is a significant contributor to climate change, it can also be an influential part of the solution. Professional clubs, leagues and international sporting events such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, the Australian Tennis Open and World Cup cricket, football and rugby result in significant greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from travel, but also from venue construction, powering events and waste produced. It is estimated that total global emissions from sport are comparable to the total emissions of Spain or Poland, roughly 300–350 million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually and equivalent to around 60 percent of Australia’s total emissions (Goldblatt 2020). Although this is likely to be a conservative estimate due to limited carbon emissions data on most sports in most countries, events and leagues. Further, the emissions of spin-off industries such as broadcasting and sportswear are not included in the calculations (Goldblatt 2020). Clearly, there is a need for more data on the carbon footprint of sport.
Sport can become a powerful force for climate action.

The good news is that sport can also be a powerful force for change. Using the star appeal and influence of elite athletes, clubs and national teams, as well as global sporting events, sport can call for climate action and embed climate solutions in their operations. Considering that community sports clubs are so deeply embedded in everyday life in Australia, they also provide a powerful focal point for raising local awareness and inspiring community action.
The implications of climate change for sport have provided the impetus for several reports, although considering the importance of the issue, the number is relatively modest. Publications include some sport-specific reports, for example, on cricket, tennis and cycling (ACF and Monash University 2019; 2020a, b) and the British Association for Sustainable Sport’s ‘Hit for Six: The Impacts of Climate Change on Cricket’ (BASIS 2019), studies on the links between climate change, sport and health (see, for example, Townsend et al. 2003), as well as some general reports, notably ‘Sport & Climate Impacts: How much heat can sport handle?’ (The Climate Institute 2015) and ‘Heat, Humanity and The Hockey Stick: Climate Change and Sport in Canberra’ (Auty and Roy 2019). Several reports have been published in the UK, including ‘Game Changer: How climate change is affecting sports in the UK’ (The Climate Coalition 2018) and ‘Playing Against the Clock: Global Sport, the Climate Emergency and the Case for Rapid Change’ (Goldblatt 2020).
As the intensity and severity of climate change grows, there has been increasing media coverage on the impacts of extreme weather on specific sporting events, such as heatwaves and bushfire smoke on tennis, cricket, cycling and soccer in Australia; drought on cricket in India; wildfire smoke on baseball, soccer and golf in the US; super cyclone Hagibis on World Cup rugby in Japan; and storm Desmond on English