The GSB Interview: Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu; Leading the Way at the UN on Sports For Climate Action

By Lew Blaustein, GreenSportsBlogThe Sports for Climate Action Framework, launched by the sport sector UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December, has gotten off to a strong start.In its first six months, an A-List of sports governing bodies, leagues and teams — from FIFA to the IOC, from the NBA to the All England Lawn Tennis Association (aka Wimbledon), from the New York Yankees to the Minnesota Wild — have committed to doing their part to achieve the Framework’s two main objectives:

1. Achieve a clear trajectory for the global sports community to combat climate change, including measuring, reducing, and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the 1.5 degree Celsius scenario enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and
2. Use sports as a unifying tool to create solidarity among global citizens for climate action.

How did the Framework come together? How will the UN measure how signatories are living up to their commitments — or not?We asked these questions, and more, of Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu who led development of the Sports for Climate Action Framework.GreenSportsBlog: Lindita, I’ve wanted to talk with you for some time about the UN’s Sports for Climate Action Framework. How did it come to be? And what is your role — and the UN’s?Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu: Our role at the UN Climate Change is to catalyze action on climate change at a significant scale. While we are not experts on sports, we can help corporations and other entities set the strategic vision that will help them to take climate action. That means providing support via our convening power and knowledge and working with them to set meaningful greenhouse gas GHG emission reduction and other targets that tie into the Paris Climate Agreementand the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.GSB: Why did the UNFCCC decide to work with the sports industry? Its emissions are relatively low compared to many other business categories.Lindita: We have one ultimate goal as a civilization if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change: to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.It will take the combined efforts of all segments of society — sports included – to achieve the change that is needed throughout society. —These changes will result in a low-emissions, highly-resilient and more sustainable future. There is no other future but a sustainable future. So, sports’ GHG emissions impact on climate may be low compared to some other industries, but nevertheless it does have a substantial impact that increasingly needs to be addressed. Sports are also uniquely positioned to act as a catalyst for change by promoting sustainable consumption, low carbon transport, and by educating fans and society at large.GSB: How did you get sports governing bodies, leagues, and teams to start the climate conversation?Lindita: Well it turns out that, going back a few years, several key actors in the sports industry had expressed interest in taking action on climate, how to operate in a way that would meet the Paris goals and use the power of sports to spur climate action. So, in 2017, we convened a meeting in Bonn, Germany among some of the biggest governing bodies, leagues and teams in sports, to discuss what a climate action agenda for sports could look like.It was clear then that the industry would have to do more to get their environmental houses in order before promoting climate more broadly. Some sports organizations were advanced in walking the climate action walk, others were not quite there yet. To help them move forward, together we developed what became the Sports for Climate Action Framework and its five principles:

1. Undertake systematic efforts to promote greater environmental responsibility
2. Reduce overall climate impact
3. Educate for climate action
4. Promote sustainable and responsible consumption
5. Advocate for climate action through communication.

Our goal there was to make getting to the five principles easier by providing a global platform that would be built on best practice climate action, convened by the UN Climate Change and developed by the sector for the sector.GSB: How do you go about doing that?Lindita: Well, the environment we’re in is more favorable. The science is clear, young people are protesting, climate change as an issue is becoming much more front and center because we are seeing its impacts every day. Sports is front and center and what does it connote? Health, fun, and prosperity. What’s at risk for sports from climate change?GSB: Health, fun and prosperity for starters…Lindita: Right! It’s only natural for sports to get involved on climate. In fact, it’s good business for sports to lead on climate.GSB: Amen, Lindita! Now it’s one thing for the IOC, FIFA, and now the New York Yankees, University of Colorado Athletics Department, NBA and more to commit to taking action on climate. How will fans know the signatories are winning on the greenhouse gas emissions reduction scoreboard?Lindita: Of course, this is a crucial aspect of the Framework. We will be getting together with the signatories in Lausanne at a meeting hosted by the IOC in September to dive deeper into the framework principles and to jointly define roadmaps to adhering to them and to articulate what best of action and success would look like.We will work together with our signatories to define these steps, metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each of the principles. This will also include reporting guidance, which will be built on best practice reporting standards. It will also include publicly reporting on the progress with commitments and we will explore how to best use UN Climate Change’s Global Climate Action platform, a searchable, user-friendly website where non-State actors can describe what they’re doing to combat climate change.GSB: I hope and would expect most signatories will walk the Sports for Climate Action walk. Is there a remedy for any who don’t fulfill their commitments?Lindita: We can revoke a signatory’s status as part of the Framework for non-performance. But we will collectively work to help any organizations that have difficulty making good on their commitments and adhering to the principles.GSB: Two of the principles that are of particular interest to me are #3 — Educate for climate action, and #5 — Advocate for climate action through communication. The willingness of sports organizations to share their climate action stories with fans through the media has, for the most part, been lacking. And, with the welcome exception of Sky Sports in Great Britain, the sports media has largely ignored climate. What can the UNFCCC do to change this? And how do you plan to measure adherence to these principles? Lindita: I think the Framework is a big step towards that – with sports organizations recognizing their influence and the importance of them using it, for the good of their sports, their businesses, and their fans. But really, there will be no ignoring climate change.We’re seeing that already, with the extreme weather events, floods, heat waves. I think that goes for the adherence to the principles as well. People will see which organizations are truly acting on climate change, and which are only talking about acting on climate change. And, I think public opinion – the supporting, paying fans – will demand the real thing. What we can do, and are doing, at UN Climate Change is to work with sports organizations to state their principles, state their goals, and help them communicate their progress – and communicate a message to everyone, urging global climate action.GSB: Oh I agree there can be no ignoring climate change, but the world is still not paying enough attention yet and time to make significant dents in GHG emissions is short. I think for the Framework to maximize its impact, the sports media from all corners of the world will need to play a key role as they are the conduit to billions of sports fans. With that in mind, will UN Climate Change consider inviting sports media executives to the September meeting in Lausanne? If not, how would your organization look to involve the sports media going forward?Lindita: The meeting in Lausanne is a working meeting and open to signatories of Sports for Climate Action framework. Principle 5 of the framework is about promoting awareness about climate change by mobilizing resources that sports have, to support action on climate change. This includes the broadcast sports media as well. As I said, we will get together to prepare a strategy that strikes a balance between ambitious and realistic and figure out what can we do collectively to reinforce the message of ambitious climate action.GSB: Good to hear that the sports media is on Sports for Climate Action’s radar. Would it be possible for those companies to be signatories in the future?Lindita: The Sports for Climate Action Framework is tailored for sports governing bodies, federations, leagues, teams, clubs, and not specifically for media. That said, the Framework would probably benefit from having categories, other than signatory, to support the work and amplify the message of sports for global climate action. And, sports media might be eager to engage with the Framework more formally, for example as designated media partners at events. We’ll work with the Framework signatories to come up with a strategy for that sort of thing, to amplify news about their climate work and importantly their engagement with fans. The role of the media in meeting the objectives of the Framework is clear. By doing what they do best – reporting on sports and the myriad interesting stories relating to sports – the media can do so much to make the Framework efforts a success, and spur climate action. Sports media, just like other sections of the media, are concerned with timely, topical and interesting news and features. That means the media will want to be reporting on climate-related sports matters.Read the full article here.