Sporting events face climate change issues

Drawing attention to the second edition of Climate Cup, a football tournament in Ladakh, a recent Mongabay-India (MI) report highlights that this tournament aims to increase awareness about the environment and impacts of climate change on lives, livelihoods, and on sports. Over 11,000 feet above sea level and enveloped by mountains, six teams competed in the tournament to showcase that with increasing temperatures and extreme weather events, sporting events face challenges. many professional football teams that participated were from states that also face climate impacts such as erratic rainfall, heat waves and sea level rise.

With increasing temperatures and extreme weather events becoming more frequent and intense, sporting events and sportspersons are facing challenges such as event cancellations or delays, damage to infrastructure, risks of accidents, and health risks such as heat stroke or erythema. The MI report also points out that sporting organisations around the world are tackling these challenges by altering the sports schedules. Some marathons are being scheduled at night and in the early morning hours when it is cooler to protect the health of runners. The recent Paris Olympic Games also adopted flexibility in event schedules to avoid exposure to daily heat peaks, installed innovative cooling and shade areas and accurately monitored the temperature and humidity constantly, to ensure optimal performance for the athletes. The Climate Cup 2024 also avoided scheduling matches during the heat peak hours.

The MI report quotes Suhel Nair, the head coach of Assam-based professional football club, Northeast United Football Club saying that the global reach of football has increased, and the players are expected to perform wherever there are fans. However, with that reach, comes the need for athletes to adapt quickly to climate impacts. Nair also added that it was becoming noticeably hotter to play during regular game hours. Most football matches are scheduled in the mornings and afternoons and take place under peak sunshine. To adapt to this, new rules have been introduced. While football is typically played in two halves of 45 minutes, in India, additional cooling breaks have been introduced to cope with the heat. These breaks are scheduled around the 30th and 70th minutes, apart from the mandatory break at the 45th minute. Nair pointed out that the game was evolving, and so are the players, as they try to keep up with these climate-related changes while maintaining performance.

The MI report further states that several studies around the globe have highlighted the threat to sporting venues and infrastructure with the increase in global temperatures and extreme weather events. Winter sports are already in trouble and as snow conditions turn unpredictable, several destinations are using artificial snow which is extremely expensive. Quoting a 2020 report titled ‘Playing against the clock’ by David Goldblatt, long-time sportswriter and researcher, the MI report points out that impacts of heat waves, drought, fires and air pollution, storms, sea-level rise, erosion, flooding and more, on big sporting events, and calls for urgent mitigation and adaptation measures. In his Introduction, Goldblatt issues a warning. 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 pacific typhoons; in early 2020, the Australian Tennis Open was disrupted by the smoke from devastating bush fires. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were forced to move long-distance running events north as the city’s sweltering summer weather made it impossible to run.

As races, marathons, and triathlons get cancelled and rescheduled and stadiums get damaged due to extreme weather, researchers say that mitigation measures are nowhere close. While sporting events are impacted by climate change, sports also contribute to a significant portion of emissions. The travel by athletes and teams, travel by spectators, the energy needed to power the venue, catering and other purchases at the venue and their transport, and waste disposal, are some of the major contributors of emissions at big sporting events. Experts say that organisations and teams have also been slow to commit to the latest targets of the Sports for Climate Action Framework, created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to halve GHG emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2040.