Last week, during an International Olympic Committee Climate Action Award event – hosted to coincide with Paris 2024 – Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu of the UNFCCC called on all sports to show “climate solidarity”.

It got me thinking about what  “climate solidarity” actually means. I came across a piece of academic work by Giacomo Bazzani at the University of Florence, where he puts forward the idea that individuals, groups or organisations adopting a “prosocial” approach to climate action – focused on helping other people – demonstrate climate solidarity. 

Bazzani’s framework showcases four ways that people can adopt prosocial behaviour, changing their lives in some way to support the collective goal of stemming climate change. 

One of the four is through “interactional structures”, where social influences like peers, family or local initiatives encourage people to adopt low-carbon lifestyles.

Social influences

Sport, of course, could fall into the bracket of “social influences”. Last night, watching the UEFA Super Cup final between Real Madrid and Atalanta, the pitchside advertising boards caught my eye with messages like ‘together for nature’ and ‘reduce, reuse, recycle, recover’, referring to UEFA’s approach to the circular economy. 

These hoardings were also present during all of the matches at UEFA EURO 2024, and perhaps messaging like this constitutes a social influence: fan watches match, sees sustainability-focused advertisement, reflects on lifestyle and decides to make changes, like reducing their consumption, for example.

If we focus just on football, it’s clear that it is a huge social influence in the life of many people. Put simply, the sport has never been so popular. Real Madrid have more than 166 million followers on Instagram alone, and, although that number dwarfs Atalanta’s followership on the same channel, the Europa League winner from Bergamo still has a direct line to more than one million people.

But what does climate solidarity mean to clubs like Real Madrid and Atalanta? Naturally, climate solidarity involves some level of ‘walking the talk’ by reducing their own carbon footprint. The Sport Positive Leagues showcase what the biggest clubs in Europe are doing from an operational standpoint.

However, during the event in Paris last week, Xhaferi-Salihu hinted at a more nuanced way for sports organisations to demonstrate climate solidarity – beyond measurement and reduction, and more towards leveraging what makes them unique.

Push low-carbon options to the mainstream

Sport’s greatest strength lies in its power to capture attention, not just highlighting climate change issues but showcasing solutions. Recently, football has seen a surge in sustainability partnerships that could pave the way for climate solidarity.

While many may see these deals as commercially driven with sustainability as an afterthought, a more integrated approach can position football as the glue in a sustainability network, offering solution providers the platform and credibility to push low-carbon options into the mainstream.

Football has a unique opportunity to drive climate solidarity by amplifying brands and organisations offering solutions to combat climate change and promote climate justice. As some European clubs are demonstrating, this approach can also be commercially viable.

Two clubs who will be hoping to emulate Real Madrid and Atalanta’s European success this season, Juventus and AS Monaco, revealed their own sustainability-focused partnerships in the past month alone.

The French Ligue 1 club, runners-up in the UEFA Champions League in 2004, has announced a partnership with Renault to promote the fully-electric Renault 5. The car’s logo will feature on the men’s team jerseys during UEFA Champions League matches.

In the official press release, Laurent Aliphat, vice president of Renault Marketing brand content, said that both entities are “seeking to implement strategies with a focus on clean mobility”.

Waxing lyrical about his own club’s partnership with renewable energy provider Enel, Juventus’ Francesco Calvo said: “We are convinced that Enel is the ideal partner to pursue the significant goals the club has set itself in terms of sustainability, an aspect we pay close attention to on a daily basis.”

Next Monday, before Juventus’ Serie A opener against Como, Enel will kick off a season-long campaign highlighting its renewable energy solutions via stadium screens and interviews.

Bigger impact on society

Perhaps the most interesting of projects of this type is Udinese’s partnership with Bluenergy Group, which has initiated the construction of a cutting-edge photovoltaic system at their stadium. The installation of 2,409 solar panels across 4,615 m² of the roof will generate around 3,000 kWh per day, helping the facility achieve partial energy self-sufficiency. Since 2018, Bluenergy has powered the club with renewable energy, reducing CO2e emissions by 5,620 tonnes.

In an interview with The Sustainability Report (due to be published in the coming weeks), Magda Pozzo, chief commercial officer of Udinese Calcio, said that it was important that sports organisations and partners “push each other” on sustainability to make a “bigger impact on society”.

While Pozzo acknowledged that the support of big organisations, like Bluenergy, was crucial to football clubs accelerating their own sustainability ambitions, she said the relationships had benefits for both sides, with the brands gaining attention and acceptance for their solution through football.

Some may remain sceptical about sport’s ability to promote genuine climate solidarity through commercial partnerships. However, if football can use its platform to spotlight more climate solutions than contributors to climate change, it could make a meaningful difference for society.

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