Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 12 and 13)

Sport events and large-scale physical activity programmes can be used to stimulate social and environmental change. They can, under certain circumstances, generate opportunities to refresh dated infrastructure, improve public transport and review development policy. Organising committees and host cities can use such events as part of an over-arching strategy to create legacies through infrastructure improvements, social tourism (12.b) and behavioural change campaigns (SDG 12.1, 12.2, 12.8). Host countries can be encouraged to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production (12.a, 12.1).

Awareness raising and educational programmes can influence attitudes, shifting consumer behaviour and the use of natural resources (SDG 12.2, 12.5, 12.8), and the social status of sport can act to magnify this dissemination information and further promote environmental responsibilities (12.6). Sports organisations are increasingly expected to reduce their carbon footprints. In this context, the value of sport in building a resilient and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters is noteworthy (SDG 13.1).