Sports for Climate Action

Sport is experiencing the impacts of the triple planetary crisis — climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. At the same time, sport has a unique ability to unite communities, inspire hope, and spark collective action. Through Sports for Climate Action, organizations across the world are working together to protect the future of sport, strengthen climate resilience, and demonstrate what is possible when collaboration, leadership and solidarity drive climate solutions.

Sport has already helped to lead progress in equality, diversity, and inclusion. It can have the same impact with climate action. Since launching the Sports for Climate Action Framework in 2018, sport Signatories have started to demonstrate how climate action can become part of their sport’s culture and legacy.

Uniting behind a set of principles, this coalition of sports organizations and their communities will work together to achieve a climate resilient future in line with the goals agreed by global leaders in Paris at COP21.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to climate action. A global federation, a professional club, a broadcaster, a major event, a venue, a grassroots organization and every other actor will contribute in different ways, but the Sports for Climate Action Framework provides every sports organization with the foundation for consistent, measurable and mutually supportive action where progress can be made, good practice can be shared, tools can be developed, lessons can be learned, and collaboration can be made easy.

The Framework

Objectives

The activities under Sports for Climate Action have two overarching objectives:

Objective 1. Align the impact of sports with the Paris Agreement and build climate resilience for sport around the world.
Objective 2. Leverage the influential platform of sports to engage communities, fans and global audiences on climate action.

Sports for Climate Action sets out this collaborative Framework to both catalyze new and enhance existing environmental commitments. It is an open and inclusive initiative, accessible to all irrespective of geography or size of organization, seeking to build on other related initiatives and commitments made by participating organizations.

Targets and Pathway to Net Zero

Sports for Climate Action signatories commit to:

Reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), against a baseline of 2019 or later.
Achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, prioritizing real emission reductions.
Develop a net-zero transition plan that identifies short-term and long-term actions, barriers, and stakeholder engagement strategies.
Publish annual progress reports to ensure transparency and credibility.

These commitments align sport with the scientific consensus that rapid, deep decarbonization is necessary to secure a sustainable and climate-resilient future.

UN Climate Change invites sport organizations, leaders and stakeholders to commit to the principles of the Framework, to work together and to help shape the path to a climate-friendly future for sport and its communities. Through this Framework, sport can play a winning role in achieving global climate goals — protecting the people, places and experiences that make sport possible, while helping to accelerate action across society.

Principles

The participants in the Sports for Climate Action Framework commit to adhere to the following four principles:

Principle 1: Design and implement a net-zero climate strategy
Principle 2: Partner with key stakeholders to deliver joint climate action
Principle 3: Champion transformative climate action through storytelling and communication
Principle 4: Strengthen climate resilience and global solidarity

The Sports for Climate Action Playing Field

To support the principles above, the Framework recommends that signatory actions, both individual and collective, are recorded in a new structure that allows measurement and reporting of activities within an organization’s scopes and within their wider spheres of collaboration in sport. Not all scopes or spheres will be equally applicable to every signatory. Signatories are encouraged to focus on the areas where they have the greatest impact and influence, and to document where and why engagement may be limited.

Uniting behind a set of principles, sports organizations and their communities have created an initiative by collaborating in order to position their sector on the path of the low carbon economy that global leaders agreed on in Paris: Sports for Climate Action.

Participants in the Sports for Climate Action Initiative commit to adhere to a set of principles and incorporate them into strategies, policies and procedures, and mainstream them within the sports community, thus setting the stage for a wider dissemination of the message and long-term success.

Sports organizations are invited to sign up to the Sports for Climate Action Principles wherever they are on their climate journey. Signatories are not expected to have all the answers from the start, but they are expected to act, learn, collaborate, and demonstrate ongoing progress over time. The Framework provides a shared platform to identify, develop and spotlight climate solutions across sport.

To express your interest in joining Sports for Climate Action, please email us at SportforClimate@unfccc.int.

List of Signatories