‘There’s nowhere near enough being done’ — Climate change group speaks out about local sport clubs
The co-ordinator of a local Cambridgeshire and Peterborough climate change alliance has called on local sporting clubs to do more to help offset climate change.
Steve Wakefield, who is also the founder of the People’s Plastic Revolution, co-ordinates the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Climate Action Coalition.
The group was set up to ‘monitor the activities of the Combined Authority to ensure that its actions, either planned or actual, are consistent with the Climate and Ecological Emergency’.
Mr Wakefield believes not enough effort has been put in locally to phase out plastics. He said: “It genuinely disappoints me that there hasn’t been any movement towards proper sustainability within our local sports teams.
“You could go to any football club in the area, athletics club or even golf course and you would find bins full of plastic all set for the landfill.
“There’s nowhere near enough being done.”
In January 2022, Heineken announced their ‘#NoPlasticFansHere’ campaign — aimed at reducing single-use plastics in football stadiums.
The Metro reported Tottenham Hotspur was named the Premier League’s ‘greenest club’ after a study from the UN-backed Sport Positive Summit found players now drink from cartons and fans eat with wooden cutlery.
Moving forward, Wakefield is clear what pathway needs to be taken. He said: “First of all you’ve got to change your attitude to realise we’re in a climate emergency.
“Then you’ve got to be practical in creating plastic-free experiences.”
He added: “There’s no reason why Cambridge or Peterborough United couldn’t serve people soft drinks in a recycled paper cup.
“Do they not care about the copious amounts of toxic material we’re burying underground?”
However, toxic material is also being released into the atmosphere. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, 3.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide filled the air.
The UN Sport for Climate Action Framework aims to combat climate change by measuring, reducing, and reporting greenhouse gas emissions. However, only a small amount of the world’s sporting bodies, leagues and clubs etc. have signed up - even fewer have created carbon targets.
Champions for Earth, a group committed to raising awareness of climate issues through athletes, sent a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson in September 2020 highlighting a need for a ‘Green Recovery’ from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter was signed by more than 300 Olympians and Paralympians including Sir Mo Farah and Sir Steve Redgrave.
Steve Wakefield also believes the pandemic has been a chance to reset the narrative. He said: “The pandemic was the best thing for the climate. We took our planes out the sky and our cars off the road, and the Earth said thank you.
“Now sport has returned properly, we need to have a focus on sustainable transport and sustainable stadiums.
“That starts with clubs acknowledging our climate emergency both locally here in Cambridgeshire, and nationally.”
