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Climate change is no longer a future challenge for sport. It's already affecting where, when and how we play.

Flooded pitches, damaged facilities, rising operating costs and periods of extreme heat are disrupting sport from grassroots participation through to elite competition, and athletes across the Commonwealth are seeing these impacts first-hand.

That gives them a powerful voice, not as climate experts, but as trusted figures who can help people understand what environmental change means for the sports and places they care about.

Because whether it's protecting local playing fields, improving air and water quality or ensuring facilities remain accessible and resilient, sustainability is ultimately about protecting the future of sport itself.

What's stopping more athletes from speaking out?

For many athletes the biggest barrier is confidence, as some worry they do not know enough about sustainability or fear criticism if they say the wrong thing.

Others are concerned about being accused of hypocrisy because sport inevitably involves travel and the use of resources.

But athletes do not need all the answers. Their role is not to become climate experts.

Their value lies in sharing their experiences of how environmental change is affecting their sport, their communities and the places they care about.

How we're helping

Together with Team England and the British Association for Sustainable Sport, we've developed a practical sustainability toolkit (available in the 'Sustainable future' heading).

Its aim is to help athletes feel confident speaking about the issues that matter to them and their sport.

Rather than turning athletes into climate experts, the toolkit encourages them to start with their own experiences, connect sustainability to performance, wellbeing and fairness, and to share positive stories about change happening in their communities.

The document reinforces a simple but powerful message – athletes can lead without being experts and sustainability is about progress, not perfection.

By providing practical talking points and guidance on navigating challenging conversations, the toolkit is helping athletes use their voices to inspire action and protect the places where we play, train and compete.

What else is needed?

Athletes cannot drive change alone. To unlock their full potential as sustainability advocates, the wider sport sector must play its part.

That means governing bodies, clubs, event organisers and sponsors that build environments where athletes feel supported and empowered to speak up.

It also means highlighting and supporting practical solutions and communities that are already taking action.

One example is Whalley Range Cricket Club in inner-city Manchester, which has adapted its facilities to become more resilient to flooding.

When athletes can connect their personal stories to examples like these, sustainability becomes tangible, positive and relevant.

That is often the first step towards inspiring others to act.

The opportunity for sport

By giving athletes the confidence, knowledge and support to speak up, we can unlock one of sport's most influential forces for change and demonstrate that sustainability is part of a stronger future for sport.

Because protecting the environment is not separate from protecting sport. It is the same mission and athletes can help lead that movement and inspire collective action, simply by sharing their story.

As England continues to experience a period of sustained heat, the latest evidence suggests that spells of extended hot weather are becoming an increasingly important difficulty when trying to be active.

Following the June heatwave, our Activity Check-in has shown that 71% of adults said they had experienced extreme heat during the previous 12 months.

Among those who had to endure extreme heat, 73% said they had done less sport and physical activity as a result.

Our study also says that the proportion saying the weather in the previous seven days was not suitable for being active increased almost fivefold, from 5% in August 2025 to 24.5% in June 2026.

Cost, time and confidence have long been recognised as obstacles to being active. These findings suggest that prolonged periods of hot weather are becoming another.

Not that hot weather is anything new. But the frequency of occurrence and the new highs reached are challenging resilience, and can turn opportunities for taking part in sport and physical activity from merely uncomfortable to unattainable for many individuals and communities.

Extreme weather is often framed in long-term and global terms, but it is undoubtedly already shaping when and how people take part in sport and physical activity today.

A hotter climate is already here

The past two years have shown how quickly weather patterns are changing.

June 2025 was England's warmest June on record, with two heatwaves during the month and temperatures across parts of eastern and south-eastern England around 3°C above the long-term average.

That record was surpassed in just one year as June 2026 then became England's new warmest June on record with a mean temperature of 17.1°C and temperatures reaching 37.7°C during the heatwave towards the end of the month.

For the sport and physical activity sector this is no longer simply an environmental challenge. Heat is becoming a participation issue.

Previous research has already shown that climate change risks widening existing inequalities in sport and physical activity.

These latest findings build on that picture, suggesting that prolonged periods of hot weather are already affecting people's ability and willingness to be active.

What did we find?

We compared findings from two Activity Check-in surveys: one from August 2025, shortly after the June 2025 heatwaves; and one from June 2026, carried out immediately following that month's heatwave.

The proportion reporting exposure to extreme heat during the previous 12 months almost doubled, increasing from 37% in August 2025 to 71% in June 2026.

Among those who had experienced heatwaves, 73.2% said they had done less sport and physical activity because of them, compared with 63.1% in August 2025.

When asked about barriers to activity, there was also a marked increase in the number saying the weather was not suitable for being active during the previous seven days.

While both surveys followed record-breaking periods of hot weather, the latest findings suggest the June 2026 heatwave had an even greater impact on participation.

Why does heat affect participation?

There is still more to learn about exactly how prolonged heat affects participation in England, but there are several likely factors.

For some, particularly older adults and those living with long-term health conditions, exercising in high temperatures can become physically more demanding and may raise concerns about health and safety.

This means these groups, along with disabled people, may experience the greatest challenges during prolonged periods of heat - showing how the impact of extreme weather is unlikely to be felt equally.

Heat can also reduce opportunities to be active.

Outdoor spaces may become uncomfortable or unsafe to use, organised activities may be adapted or cancelled, and travel disruption can make it more difficult to reach facilities.

Even where opportunities remain available, motivation can change.

When daily life already feels harder because of heat, being active may feel less appealing or less manageable.

What does this mean for grassroots sport?

Let’s face it – the climate crisis is already affecting how sport is delivered.

Grassroots sport relies heavily on outdoor facilities, volunteers and community organisations.

Many clubs are already managing the impacts of flooding during winter only to face hard, dry pitches and prolonged periods of hot weather during the summer months.

Climate impacts already cost grassroots sport circa £320 million annually in repairs and lost income.

These effects are not distributed evenly, with more deprived communities often more exposed to climate hazards and with fewer resources to respond.

This reflects a broader picture emerging from our Horizon Scanning work: climate change is increasingly shaping when and where people engage in sport and physical activity.

More frequent extreme weather, alongside changing travel patterns and sustainability goals, is expected to influence participation over the coming years.

These findings suggest those longer-term trends are already beginning to play out.

The sector has adapted to changing patterns of participation before and high heat may become another long-term trend that influences how people choose to be active.

Understanding those changes early gives the sector the opportunity to adapt before they become embedded.

With action now, sport can become more resilient, inclusive and sustainable.

Building the evidence

Our data allows us to understand how people's experiences change as events unfold, rather than relying on reflection months later.

Capturing people's experiences immediately after periods of extreme heat has helped us to better understand who is most affected, how behaviours change and where adaptation may be needed.

If you'd like to explore the findings in more detail, our Activity Check-in interactive dashboard includes data on activity levels, motivation, attitudes and barriers to participation, alongside climate-related questions, for both adults and children and young people.

Looking ahead

Heatwaves are becoming a more familiar feature of life in England.

Climate change is no longer happening somewhere else or is an issue for the future. It is shaping experiences and behaviours today.

For the sport and physical activity sector, the challenge is understanding what this means for participation, who is most affected and how we respond.

By continuing to build our understanding of how weather influences participation, we can help the sector adapt to support everyone to be active safely, confidently and consistently in the years ahead.

If you'd like to share your experiences or explore the findings in more detail, we'd love to hear from you.

I can’t wait for the Commonwealth Games, which this year will be held in Glasgow at the end of July, and to the much-needed uplifting news and excitement they’ll bring us.

The games are an opportunity for athletes from across the Commonwealth to compete at the highest level and for people everywhere to enjoy the spectacle, which will extend over 11 days of sport and festivities.

But among all the excitement we can't forget that for some of the athletes, actually getting to the point of competing has been tough and the effects on their training by climate change means it’s only getting tougher.

The dangers of acute weather conditions 

For instance, on the Maldives, sea-level rise is a real problem with saltwater encroaching on facilities and extreme weather stopping play, whereas in India it’s simply too hot to train in the summer, so its athletes must live and train elsewhere if they want to compete.

For those still unsure about the impact of climate change on sport, it’s worth attending a screening of the National Emergency Briefing and having a look at The Well-Adapted UK report, as both documents warn us about the importance of preparing for new temperatures, extreme rainfall and the changing of the seasons.

Sport and physical activity are threatened by a changing climate, not just at elite level but at grassroots level too.

As winters become wetter we are seeing pitches and courts flooded with increasing frequency, leaving them unusable for any training, competition or enjoyment.

Conflict elsewhere is another factor affecting our sector, as it’s leading to wildly fluctuating energy prices that threaten the clubs and sports organisations’ ability to keep the lights and heat on in the facilities, something that particularly affects swimming pools.

And as we approach the summer we'll see how extreme heat is increasingly going to be a key threat, particularly for disabled people, the elderly or those with a long-term health condition.

Plus for those living in densely-populated areas, the lack of shading will deter people from taking exercise as it’s hard for many to be active when the heat makes you ill.

Given that during the Covid pandemic physical activity was one of the few legitimate reasons we were allowed to leave our homes – along with essential shopping, medical needs and travel to work for key workers - it is clear how important exercise is to individuals and to any nation.

That realisation has become an accelerator for action and it’s encouraging that we are starting to work on measures to reduce our impact on the environment, to stop climate change getting any worse, and – just as importantly – to plan for the future.

Here at Sport England we are developing a report, which should be available by late summer, looking at the hazards caused to sport and physical activity by a changing climate.

But while there’s still work that needs to be done, it’s reassuring that people are considering climate change and that we’re are already taking action. 

This is only a first step because we know we need to understand how this will vary across the country, how it’ll affect different activities and – perhaps more importantly – how different people and communities will behave in more extreme weather conditions. 

The King's Baton Relay

I could see this when I visited Malmesbury Bowls Club earlier this month as part of the King’s Baton Relay, which sees delegates of the 74 competing nations and territories travel across their home lands before finishing at the host city of the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow. 

I was there with Sally-Ann Lewis-Wall, representing Team England in para-bowls at the Games, and with TV presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, to hear about the importance of sport at both elite and grassroots level being more sustainable and preparing for the future.

It was great seeing the work done, supported by our Movement Fund, to install an artificial green and then restore it when it was damaged by severe flooding last year.

The bowls club are working with others in the area to take a wider look at the flooding issue.

They have identified tree-planting and other nature-based solutions upstream to slow the flow of water to the town to enable play to continue, meaning that the members of the club will be able to keep enjoying the exercise and the good company. 

It is with thousands of these small actions across England and the Commonwealth that we can ensure we’ll all be able to keep enjoying sport and activity now and into the future.

Every little win against climate change counts and I, for one, will be watching the Games closely and listening out for other inspirational projects.