ESG Watch: How climate change is putting sport on a sticky wicket

The opening PGA golf tournament of 2026, which was due to be held in Hawaii in January, has been called off because of drought conditions on the island of Maui. Meanwhile, Cape Town’s annual marathon was cancelled just 90 minutes before the start of the event because of strong winds, highlighting that grassroots events are being affected just as much as elite sport.

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These disruptions have a massive financial impact on a business worth more than $2 trillion. The football World Cup move would mean matches starting after midnight European time, severely affecting the amount of people watching in some of the sport’s key markets such as Europe and Africa.

“In the last five years, we have seen more and more of these disruptions. It’s a big wake-up call,” says Susie Tomson, senior partner at consultancy Think Beyond, who has worked on sustainability for organisations such as the London Olympics, golf’s Ryder Cup and sailing’s Ben Ainslie Racing.

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Sport is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change, with professional sports involving a huge amount of flying by athletes and supporters, points out the chairman of Sport England, Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Boardman. But it is also in a unique position to mobilise and educate people, because of the emotional connection people and communities have with it. “There is a lot of pressure on them when it comes to speaking out, but imagine the impact if one Premier League footballer said they were not prepared to fly to games in Europe.”