Two events about sustainability delivering two packed rooms at the height of the Olympic Games in Paris says all you need to know about where it sits on the list of priorities among organisations in the Olympic Movement.

While it’s true to say that international federations and National Olympic Committees are at varying stages on their sustainability journeys, it has become abundantly clear that sport wants (and needs) to be part of the climate action and nature protection movement.

Things have evolved since a room of sustainability and sport enthusiasts and a handful of sports organisations sat in a side room at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018 to mark the launch of the UNFCCC Sports for Climate Action Framework.

Almost six years on, one of the architects of the framework, Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu of the UNFCCC, addressed a standing-room-only event at Deloitte House in Paris, calling on sport to show “climate solidarity”, showcasing the extent to which sport’s approach to climate action could potentially evolve.

While the fundamentals of the framework remain constant – the ambition for each signatory is to achieve a 50% carbon reduction against an agreed baseline by 2030 – Xhaferi-Salihu stressed that each sport and organisation could take their own tailored approach and focus on the areas where they could support the transition in the most effective way.

This could be in the realm of climate adaptation, she said, or providing opportunities for collaboration and communication. ‘Focus on your strengths’ was the key message.

Consistent approaches

A handful of organisations and athletes were recognised for doing just that as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Deloitte unveiled the shortlist for the 2024 Climate Action Awards.

World Rugby and the Spanish Olympic Committee, two winners of the inaugural awards in 2023, demonstrated their consistent approaches to sustainability by being nominated again.

The former was recognised for its collaboration with partners to develop a Carbon Emissions Reporting Tool (CERT) for event organisers, while the latter collected 4,500 kilograms of old sports clothing, turning them into Spanish flags needed for the Games. The resulting awareness raising campaign reached more than eight million people.

The Olympic Committees of Chile, Greece, Mauritius and Switzerland also made the shortlist alongside the International Biathlon Union, International Canoe Federation, International Hockey Federation and World Rowing.

Winners will be announced during Climate Week in September.

Marcus Mepstead, the British fencer who won the award last year, joined the event to talk about his approach to climate action. Channelling his “athlete mindset”, Mepstead explained his three-step approach: eliminate (by selling his car), reduce (asking his kit supplier to cut waste and use more sustainable materials) and offset (working with Trees for the Future).

Athletes who could follow in his footsteps by winning the 2024 award include Christopher Blevins, the American mountain biker who created an animation and poetry project about the realities of climate change, Imogen Grant, who, as a rower, helped to launch the Clean Water Alliance in Britain and Marion Thenault, the Canadian skier who is helping fellow athletes address their travel-related emissions.

Making up the athlete shortlist are Oliver Schofield, the Canadian hockey player who established sustainability consultancy, Race to Zero, and Lina Taylor, the beach volleyball player from Bulgaria, who educates professionals through her Climate Executive Coaching.

Protection to regeneration

Taylor moderated the second event a day later, ‘Sports for Nature. Better Together’, where the conversation moved to biodiversity protection and conservation.

Julie Duffus, the IOC’s senior manager of Olympic Movement sustainability, said that now was the time for sport to not only protect nature, but to do what it can to support regeneration efforts. Alongside Meredith McCurdy of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Duffus welcomed another batch of signatories to the Sports for Nature Framework.

The National Olympic Committees of Greece, Mauritius, Solomon Islands and Botswana, as well as the Caribbean Association of Olympic Committees, World Flying Disc Federation, International Federation Icestocksport, European Aquatics and the French Rowing Federation committed to the framework’s four principles – nature protection, nature restoration, sustainable practices and education and communitcations – while founding signatories showcased their initial work.

According to McCurdy, 92% of the founding signatories (the Sports for Nature Framework was established in late 2022) had produced a report, while a handful of more recent signatories submitted documents about their progressed despite not being required to.

In its own report highlighting initial progress made by signatories, Sports for Nature revealed that just over two-thirds (69%) of those reporting have both a plan and committed resources to work on nature, 62% have the capacity to work on nature internally, while 15% have made no progress but plan to start before 2024 concludes.

The UCI Cycling World Championships 2023, World Surf League, Olympic House and Olympic Museum in Lausanne and The Ocean Race were recognised for their respective efforts against each of the four principles.

A “team sport”

Three current and former athletes stressed the need for collective action during the half-day conference at Club France. Alena Olsen, with her newly-won bronze medal for her performances with the USA women’s rugby 7s, told the audience that climate action is a “team sport”, comparing the different strengths and competences that make a successful rugby team special with the diverse skills and experiences needed to take on the climate challenge.

Adam van Koeverden, Olympic canoeing champion at the 2004 Games and current parliamentary secretary to Canada’s ministers of both environment and sport, said he was “frustrated” by efforts to blame individuals for environmental crises, while Abhinav Apjit Bindra, an Olympic goal medallist in shooting, explained how his foundation was supporting the Odisha Ridley Forests initiative – a multi-stakeholder project to plant one million indigenous species of trees across 1,700 hectares of land.

It is one of handful of initial projects in the Olympic Forests Network that includes further projects in Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, all of which are backed by National Olympic Committees.

The IOC itself is investing in the restoration of nature in 90 villages across Mali and Senegal as part of the wider Great Green Wall project, planting around 590,000 trees to celebrate the hosting of the Youth Olympic Games 2026 in Dakar.

Marie Sallois, the IOC’s corporate and sustainability director, said that, in advance of the event, she was able to dig out the first MoU agreed between the IOC and the United Nations Environment Programme in the 1990s, which included just four words: “We will work together.”

While the scale of the challenge to address climate change and biodiversity loss – and their impacts on sport – were acknowledged to be extremely complex problems, coming together and committing to collaboration is the simple first step.

As Lina Taylor said to conclude the session: “Sport teaches us that we can do hard things.”

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