Sports in the Face of Climate Change: The Position of Sports Organizers Through the Example of Five French and One Swiss Sports Organizations

Abstract

The sports event industry is threatened by climate change. In the coming decades, these changes will increase the risks for athletes and spectators and will make the organization of events more complicated. Therefore, sport must act to reduce its negative impact on the environment and raise awareness among its stakeholders to do the same. The purpose of this research was to identify the behaviour and strategies of sports event organizers faced with climate change. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with members of six organizations: the Amaury Sports Organization, the Centre Sportif de la Vallée de Joux, the Lille Olympique Sporting Club, the Paris Volley, the European Metropolis of Lille and the Fédération Française de Tennis. The results show that the organizations studied are concerned about their impact on the environment and are involved in the issue despite the lack of regulations. We see a common strategy of reducing the organizations’ impact, raising awareness and sometimes offsetting their carbon emissions. However, it is certain that more effective governance would allow for the participation of all actors in this fight and would significantly reduce the negative impact of sport events on the environment.