Extreme weather making it harder to be active

Three in five adults in England say extreme weather has had a negative impact on their ability to be physically active, according to new research by Sport England.

The funding agency is announcing a new investment package “to help sports battle climate change” as part its first environmental and sustainability strategy.

A total of £45m will be used “to help more people get active in nature, restore flooded sports pitches and help sports clubs become sustainable”.

Major sports governing bodies will also be required to tackle climate change through “robust sustainability action plans” by 2027 in order to receive public funding.

“Extreme weather is increasingly making it difficult for us to live healthy, active lives (…) with sporting opportunities increasingly cancelled and disrupted,” Sport England’s chair Chris Boardman told BBC Sport.

“The FA has estimated that 120,000 football games will be lost each year. A third of community pitches are already unplayable for two months of the year due to flooding – and it’s only going to get worse.

“If places to play are unavailable, people will go and do something other than sport and physical activity, leading to small clubs going under and vital community organisations disbanding.”

According to the Met Office, the winter of 2023-24 has been the eighth wettest on record in the UK.

It predicts that by 2070, winters in the UK will be up to 30% wetter than they were in 1990 and that rainfall will be up to 25% more intense.

The most violent downpours in summer – more than 30mm of rainfall in an hour – are expected to occur twice as often as they used to.

Sport England’s research found that:

• Four in 10 organisations are being affected by weather-related interruptions to play already.

• Three in five people say climate change is negatively impacting sport and physical activity.

• Eight in 10 people want their organisations to be ambitious on environmental sustainability.

• More than half of organisations (55%) see a lack of funding as the greatest barrier to acting on environmental sustainability.

Sport England’s 'Every Move' sustainability strategy will require 130 partners, including national governing bodies, to have sustainability plans in place by March 2027 “as a condition of their funding”, as well as reducing its own carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2040.

“Sport holds a privileged position in our nation’s psyche," Boardman added. "It can reach and influence millions of people to tackle this global issue.

"As a contributor to climate change through major events and travel, it's time for us to become part of the solution.”

One club that has already adopted an action plan as a result of extreme weather impact is Whalley Range Cricket Club in Manchester.

Their outfield has been flooding annually and multiple games have been rained off this season.

Solar panels have been installed on the pavilion roof and native trees were planted beyond the boundary rope field to better soak up excess water, with the grass wildflowers left to grow and rewild with reduced mowing and trimming.

Mike Hill, who is chairman and groundsman at the club, says he wants to find a way to “keep the cricket club going as a place to play sport for the next 20 or 30 years”.

He added: “Not being able to find a ball is not the end of the world, but climate change could be.”