It’s the second summit day. On this day, we managed to listen to Melissa Wilson moderating a panel on evolving the athlete voice and learned that a large majority of professional athletes are concerned about climate change. In the end, it does not matter, whether you are a professional athlete, a club representative, a fan or not into sports at all: the majority of the population is concerned about climate change.
In the afternoon, a breakout room session on intersectional environmentalism and climate justice led by Dr Jessica Murfree and Alexandra Rickham (Head of Sustainability, World Sailing) took place. As one of The Ball’s key missions is to broaden the discourse around climate change and climate action to make it a more inclusive one, this session was very insightful and in fact, everyone needs to hear what these incredible speakers have to say.
The Ball was signed by leaders in the Sport for Climate Action space including Dale Vince who is the chairman of Forest Green Rovers which is, according to FIFA and the UN, the world’s greenest club based in the UK, and David Garrido, a presenter for Sky Sport UK who just did a documentary on climate and football and the world club football’s first Climate Justice Officer Seán McCabe. The large majority of people who signed The Ball during the conference also told us their story about why they think that sport must help tackling the climate crisis and how they go about it. And as signing The Ball comes with a climate pledge this time, we also collected several of those.
Climate change is a big and complex topic and tackling it requires a team’s effort. This is why bringing all those brilliant people and organisations into one room (or in this case one stadium) is so crucial. Having said that, we want to thank Claire Poole, Founder and CEO of Sport Positive, and her entire team for making this happen, giving everyone such a smooth conference experience with insightful panels, critical discussions in between speaker sessions and delicious plant-based food! #OneBallOneWorld
Meet and greet with The Ball at Wembley Stadium:
