Getting from zilch to action on climate adaptation
Preparing football from grassroots to the global for temperature rises
Introduction
In the UK the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) has just written to the Government saying it needs to prepare for a 2°C temperature rise by 2050. Preparing for a 4°C increase by the end of the century should also be considered as part of effective adaptation planning. It calls for the UK to take a materially different approach to the one taken so far on climate adaptation. It says we are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and there is a need to prepare for more heatwaves, drought, flooding, fire weather and storms.
These are not some far off concerns for football. We are already seeing the effects of extreme weather, from the grassroots to the global. For instance, the English FA has estimated 120,000 games being postponed each year. Elsewhere, Sport England shows 4 in 10 organisations being affected by weather-related interruptions. Globally, we have recently seen devastating impacts of floods on clubs and their communities, for instance in Brazil, Spain, Central Europe and Argentina.
Without more action, further temperature rises will mean more of the above. More of your child’s grassroots matches being called off. More of the matches you play or watch being postponed. Less watchable games when they do go ahead. Disruptions to your football-related plans and routines. Fan-bases and their local communities being more affected.
Inaction now will lead to escalating costs from physical climate risks, while early adaptation investments can deliver high value for money. Collaboration and innovation on these challenges can help deliver a better future experience for football’s fans and players. This leads to the questions - what is football doing now to adapt to temperature rises? And what needs to happen next?1
Please donate here. All donations, big or small are super-welcome. Donations will help keep the newsletter going, open to all for free and informing action on football and climate issues.
A pitiful level of attention so far in football
Globally
FIFA promised in 2021 to “Review [its] concepts, requirements, agreements and regulations for FIFA tournaments and events to adapt them to climate change impacts”. Fast forward four years, and no review has taken place or is known to be planned.
In recent days the FIFA President has floated the idea that domestic football calendars are shifted to finish in June. The suggestion appears focussed on allowing FIFA to organise its own World Cup tournaments to be played out of summertime due to the heat at this time of year: “We are discussing it and we will see when we come to some conclusions. We just have to have an open mind.”
These are the first signals of behind-closed-doors discussions about the impacts of heat on football - but with no clear objectives, process, timescale, governance, transparency, or engagement with them.
Alongside this, FIFA as a tournament organiser could have potential conflicts of interest. Will it seek to prioritise adaptations to football that benefit the increasing tournaments itself organises, over what’s best for football globally?
For instance, on the idea of moving the annual football calendar to finish in June, this could help create a space elsewhere in the calendar for both club and country FIFA World Cups that are less affected by heat. The FIFA President cited October and March as “the months you can play everywhere”.
But is it helpful for the future of domestic club football to move games to June? Experts say heatwaves this year contributed to the warmest June on record in western Europe, and in June “Much of Europe experienced strong or very strong heat stress”.
A further point of note is that FIFA’s upcoming World Cup will be sponsored by one of the “oil giants directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves” that is leading to the need for football to adapt.
Europe
Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average. This makes it the fastest-warming continent on Earth. When it comes to the continental federations, UEFA, unlike others, does have a sustainability strategy. However, this strategy has nothing to say on any plans, objectives or initiatives in relation to climate adaptation.
This is reflected, for instance, in UEFA’s infrastructure guidelines. These appear to need a major rewrite to take climate adaptation into account. Alongside this, UEFA previously mentioned it was working on regulations to safeguard players and fans from extreme weather. This work has seemingly disappeared without a trace. As a further example of a yawning strategic gap, UEFA and European Football Clubs, have just announced they will ”unite to accelerate sustainability in European football”. This is an important missed opportunity to kick-start (let alone accelerate) European-level action on climate adaptation in football.
UEFA has previously committed to a review of its sustainability strategy’s effectiveness and architecture in 2025. This would be an ideal opportunity to integrate climate adaptation work into its overall approach. But with two months of the year left, and no indication of work underway, we should not hold our breath for it.
This all comes as the European Parliament passed a motion on the European Sport Model which calls “on the Commission and the Member States to encourage environmental responsibility and climate adaptation in sport”. This clearly identifies a need for a more active role by Governments, as well as sport itself, on climate adaptation.
National
At a national football governing body level, the picture of little or no strategic planning is much the same. Here in the UK, both the Premier League and the FA environmental strategies contain some vague words on climate adaptation. However, there are no clear objectives, plans, or actions in relation to it. The FA includes a statement on climate risks in its annual accounts. It sees extreme weather as an important risk only in the long-term and under a 4°C scenario. This seems at odds with the CCC view of planning now for 2°C. The FA statement also mentions a proposal for “a data-driven project on the impact of weather”. No further details are yet available on this.
At a club level in England we are seeing a handful of clubs beginning to disclose climate risks. These are part of mandatory climate-related reporting for the UK’s biggest businesses. This shows some welcome attention now being given to these risks. At the same time it also highlights hugely divergent approaches. This includes on methodology, timescales, the types of risks being considered, and the findings coming out of them. It demonstrates a gap for best practice guidance, and a need for much more consistency, clarity and action within football on climate risks more generally.
The above factors arguably highlight a key governance failure already identified by the UK Government in its consultation on football governance - a reckless short-term focus by owners and directors.
Despite this, the Government waved away cross-party calls for the Football Governance Act to recognise climate issues in legislation. Backed by voices in the industry, it argued that the football regulator should focus narrowly on financial issues for football. Looking at climate change would be ‘scope creep’.
Yet shortly after the football regulator was approved, the Government published an analysis showing the financial implications of climate change on grassroots sport. This identifies a £320 million annual financial impact on grassroots sport in the UK due to extreme weather. It also says that other further financial impacts beyond this could not be quantified but are “likely to be large”.
This means there is every reason to believe that large annual financial impacts on grassroots football will be mirrored elsewhere in the world. In addition, there will be countries and areas in the world that have done little or nothing to contribute to climate change and/or have little, if any, resources to respond to the adaptation challenges ahead for football. However, no assessments yet exist, for grassroots or elite football.
How, by who, and to what extent the financial impacts of climate change are to be addressed has not been looked into - let alone what a fair distribution should like both within and across countries.
In England, there is already an inability of football bodies to find an agreement on a fair distribution of funding in football more generally. This suggests it’s going to be a considerable but necessary challenge to address on climate adaptation too.
Summary sitrep
In summary, this analysis suggests there is:
already climate impacts on football and these will grow;
an existing absence of strategic planning in football on climate adaptation;
a lack of evidence that football has any clear plans to get its house in order at both international and national levels;
research identifying financial impacts of climate on sport;
a need to allocate appropriate resources to address this challenge, and for this be done fairly;
a recognised short-termism in football governance that acts as a barrier;
a stated need for Governments to play an active role too; and
a need for a materially different approach.
Next steps
Much of what needs to happen next is clear. It can, for instance, be adapted for football from the approach proposed by the CCC for the UK Government in its letter this week. At international, confederation and national levels, new frameworks are needed. These should outline clear, long-term adaptation objectives for football. These objectives need to be drawn from further research that is required urgently. This should also include reviewing - as FIFA previously proposed to do - the concepts, requirements, agreements, infrastructure, and regulations of football to future-proof them for future warming.
Longer-term objectives need to be driven through a set of interim milestones, with shorter-term targets. This should be underpinned by clear accountabilities, a plan to deliver them, and a regular review of objectives. These clear accountabilities need to set out the roles of different stakeholders in, and beyond, football. A focus on collaboration and innovation will be key. This must include local and national public bodies, as this is clearly not something football can deliver by itself.
The Leadership Elephant
So far, so logical. None of these suggestions is ground-breaking or rocket science, but will be challenging. The elephant in the room is where the leadership is going to come from to deliver this? Many leaders of football’s governing bodies have provided introductory remarks to strategies where they mention the impacts of climate change. But beyond these remarks, as we have seen, nothing of substance or scale is to be found.
A further example on leadership issues is the recent Leaders Summit in London. This brought together global leaders in the sports business, but did not include climate on its agenda. Look at the upcoming FT Business of Football Summit, and you’ll see a similar gap. This all seems quite staggering when you consider that global business leaders, surveyed by the WEF, say that “Environmental risks dominate the 10-year horizon, led by extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.”
It suggests that business leaders outside of football are more tuned in to the issues than those within the football industry. This also again appears to align with the governance failures and short-termism in sport identified by the European Commission, UK Government and others.
Drawing on another section of the CCC letter and adapting it for a football context - Players and fans from the grassroots to the global are already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate, and want more action. The football community owes it to them to prepare for what we know is ahead. What needs to be done is challenging but clear and can help deliver a better future for football. Will football’s leaders step up?
Note: This post is written from a non-expert perspective from outside the professional climate and football worlds. Comments, corrections and clarifications would be welcome from experts and non-experts alike - and offers to write a guest post more than welcome too. Either drop a line direct, or post a comment below.
Fran James (he/him)
Football and Climate Change Newsletter
info@footballandclimate.org
LinkedIn | Bluesky | X
Want to know more about climate adaption? More from the United Nations is here on What is climate change adaptation and why is it crucial?