A study revealed that climate change will threaten global sport over the next three decades. The report was published by the Rapid Transition Alliance, a climate change and global issues monitor. It said nearly all sports would be impacted by "an accelerating climate crisis". It highlighted how the weather had already disrupted major sports events. Bushfires made playing conditions hazardous at the Australian Tennis Open and torrential typhoon rain disrupted last year's Rugby World Cup in Japan. Fires, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels may cause greater disruption.
The Rapid Transition Alliance urged the sports industry to become carbon-neutral. It said: "Sport provides some of society's most influential role models. If sport can change how it operates to...halt the climate emergency, others will follow." Carbon emissions from sports events worldwide are equal to those produced by a medium-sized country. The report author said sport should be more proactive. He said: "Making a carbon-zero world the common-sense priority of the sports world would make a huge contribution to making it the common-sense priority of all politics."