SPORT AND CLIMATE CHANGE: RESEARCH EVIDENCE AND EMERGING CONCERNS

Abstract

The relationship between sport and climate change has been receiving growing scholarly attention in recent years. On one hand, researchers have sought to understand, with increasing nuance, the ongoing and potential effects of climate change on the sporting world. On the other hand, research has also examined how sport contributes to the process of climate change – for example, through waste production, pollution, biodiversity loss, and carbon emissions. The present article provides a critical overview of the existing scholarship in these burgeoning areas of study, highlighting major findings, recurring themes, and projections for the future of sport. The paper also considers how sport is adapting to the challenges imposed by climate transformations and indicates key emerging research concerns in the context of sport ecology. It then concludes by emphasizing the need to strengthen research on sport and climate change in the Global South.