Environmental Defenders Office releases guidance on grassroots sport and climate change

Independent agency the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) has released a guide to help grassroots sport clubs prepare for the impact of climate change.

With local clubs and associations having limited resources to help them adapt to a changing climate, the EDO’s Making sport safe in a changing climate: A guide for grassroots sport guidance also highlights how, in recent years, extreme weather events have caused major interruptions and had serious health consequences at both elite and grassroots levels of sport, particularly in the summer months. 

The EDO advise that “if you’re a player, a parent, guardian or coach, the guide can help you understand climate risks to sport and how we can all make sure summer sport is here to stay and safe to play.”

The guidance highlights the following:

• English Test Cricket Captain Joe Root being hospitalised with heat exhaustion after an Ashes Test match in Sydney in 2018. The air temperature at the time was 42° and a heat-tracker in the middle of the ground showed a reading of 57.6°. 

• A Big Bash League cricket match in Canberra being suspended in 2019 when smoke from the Black Summer bushfires blew over the field. 

• More than nine players withdrew from the 2014 Australian Open after four days of 40° plus heat. More than 1,000 spectators and several ball-kids were treated for heat exhaustion.  

• In 2022, devastating floods in Lismore, NSW, damaged the local AFL oval making it unsuitable for play.

• In northwest Brisbane, a football club’s synthetic playing field were washed away by severe flooding in 2022. A shipping container full of the club’s equipment also floated away on the floodwaters. 

• In 2007, three-quarters of metro and rural AFL leagues in Victoria had their playing seasons delayed or shortened due to ground closures caused by drought.

The EDO is an Australian non-governmental organisation (NGO) that encourages, funds and provides lawyers and legal support for litigation, law reform and community engagement on climate change and environmental issues.

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Image: Sydney Thunder captain Callum Ferguson exits the field at Manuka Oval in December 2019 as a smoke haze covers the ground. Courtesy of Sydney Thunder/Facebook.