Climate change poses increasing legal risk for Australian sports bodies

With climate change and related extreme weather events already impacting Australian sport, a new report shows that peak bodies and national sporting organisations are failing to engage with or adapt to the challenges

The report, Sports, Climate Change and Legal Liability, released today by the Environmental Defenders Office and sports climate advocacy movement FrontRunners, suggests that failing to adapt to the climate crisis, opens sporting organisations up to serious financial and legal risks.

Noting that extreme heat, bushfire smoke and flooding have been increasingly impacting sport in Australia over the past decade - affecting players, fans, officials and infrastructure from the grassroots level to elite competitions - the report details recent impacts, including:

• Bushfire smoke disrupting cricket matches and hospitalising players during the Black Summer fires;

• Extreme heat harming players and spectators during Australian Open tournaments and shortening cycling's Tour Down Under; and

• Flooding damaging sports grounds and stadiums.

The report goes on to look at key liability risks to various stakeholders and the responses available to sporting organisations across five key areas:

• Player and spectator welfare

• Physical infrastructure

• Contract risk

• Director's duties, and

• Reputational risk (from a lack of action, or sponsorship by coal, gas and oil companies)

The report, which analysed the policies of 314 Australian sporting bodies, found that as of September 2023:

• Only three sporting bodies mentioned climate change in their annual reports (less than 1% of all bodies surveyed),

• 19 referred to climate change or sustainability in their strategic plans (6% of bodies), and

• Nine issued guidance or publications on their website on climate change or sustainability (less than 3% of bodies).

Launched in September 2021 by Chief Executive Emma Pocock along with her husband, former Wallabies captain and ACT Senator David Pocock, FrontRunners - which works with athletes and sports bodies to address the impacts of climate change - partnered with lawyers at the Environmental Defenders Office to understand the implications of climate change for sports governance.

The report also maps the current engagement with climate risk of 314 major sporting organisations around the country, including the NRL, AFL, Cricket Australia, Water Polo Australia, Surfing Australia and Golf Australia.

Overall, Emma Pocock noted "sports bodies are lagging behind other parts of our society in meeting the challenges of climate change, but there are ample opportunities for them to catch up.

"Sport can and must act quickly to turn things around. As a start, all sporting organisations and clubs must commit to eight impactful actions.

"These include actually implementing climate change policies, ensuring they develop and implement policies that protect players, spectators and officials from extreme weather, review risks to physical infrastructure from extreme weather, and ensure adequate insurance."

Legal Implications
Commenting on potential legal liabilities highlighted in the report, Environmental Defenders Office Chief Executive, David Morris advised “most sporting bodies around Australia are exposing themselves to significant legal and financial risks by failing to grapple with the impacts that climate change is having on players, spectators, officials, and infrastructure.

"These risks occur at all levels of sports administration and on numerous fronts. Our research found that sports administration bodies in Australia were lagging well behind counterparts in other countries and behind other sectors in Australia.

"At the time of publication, less than 1% of sporting bodies surveyed mentioned climate change in their annual reports and only 6% referred to climate change or sustainability in their strategic plans.

"At a time when the real-world impacts of climate change are being reported every day, these legal risks should be front and centre considerations from the field of play to the boardroom. Sports bodies must act quickly to address the risks that are mounting as climate change advances."

The report also found the Australian Sports Commission had fallen behind its international counterparts in its response to climate change.

Click here to view the Sports, Climate Change and Legal Liability report.

Images: Sydney Thunder captain Callum Ferguson exits the field at Manuka Oval in the ACT in 2019 as a smoke haze covers the ground (top, courtesy of Sydney Thunder/Facebook), Football NSW issued warnings about poor air quality at its Valentine Park headquarters in 2019 as a result of bushfires (middle, credit: Football NSW) and a drought impacted AFL at Billiluna/Kururrungku in Western Australia (below, credit: Shutterstock).