UN Climate Change invites sports organizations and their stakeholders to join a new climate action for sport movement. This initiative aims at supporting and guiding sports actors in achieving global climate change goals.

Sports organizations can display climate leadership by engaging together in the climate neutrality journey. They can achieve this by taking responsibility for their climate footprint, which in turn will incentivize climate action beyond the sports sector, and therefore help global ambition step-up in the face of the threat posed by climate change.

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

Sports for Climate Action Objectives

Sports for Climate Action works towards two overarching goals:

1. Achieving a clear trajectory for the global sports community to combat climate change, through commitments and partnerships according to verified standards, including measuring, reducing, and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the well below 2 degree scenario enshrined in the Paris Agreement;
2. Using sports as a unifying tool to federate and create solidarity among global citizens for climate action.

Sports for Climate Action Principles

The Sports for Climate Action Initiative will provide sports organizations with a forum where participants can pursue climate action in a consistent and mutually supportive fashion by learning from each other, disseminating good practices, lessons learned, developing new tools, and collaborating on areas of mutual interest.

Participants in the Sports for Climate Action Initiative will commit to adhere to a set of five 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.

Organizations are invited to sign up to the Sports for Climate Action principles, regardless of their current stage in their environmental endeavors and work collaboratively to identify and spotlight climate solutions.

UN Climate change will deploy its existing Global Climate Action platforms such as NAZCA, Climate Neutral Now, and Momentum for Change initiatives to inspire action, track progress and/or highlight success and provide recognition. UN Climate Change will also facilitate and coordinate the initiative within its resources and mandates.

Sports for Climate Action Targets

Sports for Climate Action signatories have established climate action in the agenda of the sports industry and are providing a signal for the future of sports, with global signatories joining every day. These commitments must be met with strategies to reduce GHG emissions, backed by immediate concrete actions and transparency of their progress against set targets. Many signatories have already started this process by mapping out their own GHG emissions, setting concrete goals and net-zero targets, and communicating and advocating for 1.5°C ambition on a global scale.

As part of this commitment, and three years after the launch of Sports for Climate Action framework, signatories are now requested to commit to achieving specific climate goals of halving emissions by 2030 and aiming to achieve net-zero by 2040.

These targets and timelines aim to position sports as an industry that sets the pace for climate action. Both goals have been informed by best practice targets. Sport is well placed to respond to the scientific consensus that deep and fast emission reductions are required to ensure a safer future. While focus will be on the 2030 goal, UN Climate Change will work with signatories to determine best course of action for achieving net zero by 2040, always guided by credible, best practice guidance. 

Sports for Climate Action targets and requirements

All sports are invited to adopt the following targets:

To ensure a consistent process and to incentivise action, all Sports for Climate Action signatories are requested to adhere to the following process:

1. PLEDGE. Sports for Climate Action Commitment requires a pledge by the head of the organisation. Commitments to adopt the targets will also require a pledge at the head-of-organization level to reach (net)-zero by 2040.
    
2. PLAN. To help facilitate action towards emissions reductions targets, participants of the Framework must issue plans on how they are aiming to achieve interim targets. As soon as possible but within 12 months of joining signatories will be expected to submit plans to UN Climate Change, explaining what actions will be taken toward achieving their climate pledges, especially in the short term (2030 target). These plans will often be iterative, especially when signatories first embark on their net zero transformation. For example, smaller entities or those facing resource and capacity constraints may require additional time to prepare a first GHG inventory.
    
3. PROCEED WITH ACTION. All signatories are requested to take immediate action toward their climate goals, reflecting the urgency of rapid emissions reductions. Each organisation can choose how they will approach their emission reductions audit, it is well understood that not all signatories begin from the same starting line.
    
4. REPORT. For credibility of commitments and to maintain signatory status, all signatories are to submit annual public reporting from 2021 onwards.

By adopting these targets, sports will officially join Race to Zero, a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.