Climate change threatening 'high-performance sport's existence' says UK Sport chief

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, UK Sport's new strategy have been called 'Team of Tomorrow'

Climate change is threatening "high-performance sport's existence", says UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday.

The government agency has a new sustainability strategy, called Team of Tomorrow.

The aim is to get British Olympic and Paralympic sport to have a net positive impact on the environment by 2040.

Every governing body has been told to have a sustainability action plan in place by 2025.

UK Sport announced the new strategy alongside statistics from a 2020 report to prove the need for change.

The study, called 'Playing against the clock', says of the 19 Winter Olympics hosts leading up to Beijing 2022, only 10 will remain viable winter sports hosts in 2050. This would drop to just six by 2080.

"Without urgent action, our team of tomorrow is under threat," Munday said. "UK Sport is determined to reduce the impact of our own activities and operations, targeting net zero by 2030, as well as driving action and progress on sustainability across high-performance sport.

"As well as taking meaningful action on sustainability ourselves, we must also use the voice, influence and platform of high-performance sport to advocate for action on environmental sustainability and inspire others to act and make a difference."