Sport England wants sports to do more to tackle the climate crisis and plans to require action in this area as a condition of grant funding, the Guardian reported in an exclusive, based on a statement from Sport England chairman Chris Boardman. Speaking at the Blue Earth Summit in Bristol last week, Boardman stressed the need for action and warned that climate change poses a “serious threat” to sport and physical activity in England.
Sport England invests more than £300 million (€346m) of public money annually. A former cyclist and 1992 Olympic champion, Boardman said that “the status quo is no longer an option” and called environmental protection “the biggest issue that we will face.”
Sports federations sign Sport England’s code of conduct before receiving funding. Sport England now hopes its code of conduct will include a commitment for these organizations to define plans to address the climate crisis. “We have got to move from a position of ‘inform and encourage’ to one of ‘enable and require,’” Boardman told the Guardian. Meetings with sports federation representatives will begin in November.
At the Blue Earth Summit, Boardman also highlighted support for the new commitment in the government’s Get Active Strategy that states the government will work with us to “embed environmental sustainability as a pillar of funding agreements.”
The climate emergency is already having a negative impact on physical activity in the UK. During the July 2022 heatwave, one in seven adults said the weather was unsuitable for physical activity, and more than a quarter of children reported the same, according to Sport England data. During the heavy rainfall in November 2022, the percentage of children and young people who said the weather kept them from physical activity increased by nearly 40 percent.
