Is the 2022 FIFA World Cup really carbon neutral?

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Physics World.

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Hello. And welcome to the Physics World Stories

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podcast.

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I'm Andrew Glaston. In this episode, we're gonna

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be exploring the relationship

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between sport and climate change. And this comes

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really from my own personal love of sport

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and my desire, of course, to see a

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better planet.

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This summer, I was very fortunate to be

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at Wembley to see the England's women's team

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win the European championships.

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Nearly 90,000

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people packed into the stadium.

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And it did cross my mind at one

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point, bizarrely, during the match, what the impact

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of that would be on the climate. I'm

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also a season ticket holder at Bristol City

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Football Club. And while sport is only a

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part of society, it clearly has a large

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reach. What if sport was used to do

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communication

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about climate change? What kind of impact could

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that have on the 1,000 of people travelling

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to sporting events each weekend?

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And in the run up to the the

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men's World Cup in Qatar, there's been some

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discussion

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about the impact that that will have on

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the climate.

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In fact, protests in France have seen mayors

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refusing

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to show the games on large screens in

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cities and town centers as a result of

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both the perceived impact on the climate and

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in protest against perceived human rights negligence in

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Qatar.

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Later in the podcast, we'll hear about a

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team close to my heart and what they're

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doing to try and combat their impact on

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the climate. And we'll hear about a cricket

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team whose very existence

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is born out of a group whose purpose

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is to try to save the world

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from climate change.

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Gilles de Vran

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is an author of a report responding

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to FIFA's claim that the Qatar World Cup

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will be carbon neutral. So basically, we started

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out just with a question, like, how realistic

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is this? Can we trust it? And does

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it does it really mean anything? And it's

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based on on sound accounting.

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And

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our conclusion is that it is not credible.

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It's it's a misleading claims. It's basically greenwashing,

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and it's highly unlikely that the World Cup

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is not going to have a negative impact

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on the climate. There are two main reasons

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for that. The first is

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problems around accounting of emissions. The fact that

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they have massively underestimated

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the emissions, especially

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related to the construction of the stadiums, and

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I'll go a little bit more in detail

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on that. And the second issue is related

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to the compensation. So to compensate emissions, they

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are

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purchasing these carbon offsets, these term credits, so

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basically buying

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emission reductions from someone else.

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And the credits they have purchased,

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first of all, they've purchased very few, and

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the credits are very low quality. So I'll

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speak a little bit to that as well.

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So on the accounting issue,

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the main

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the most obvious element, let's say, the one

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that was really kind of glaring at us,

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is related to the accounting for the emissions

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of the construction of the stadiums.

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So there are 8 stadiums that will be

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used for the World Cup.

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One was already there and has been, somewhat

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renovated.

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1 is temporary in the sense that it

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can be dismantled and then transported and used

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again somewhere else,

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which in theory is a good idea. In

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practice, there are no concrete public plans on

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whether and how this will actually happen. So

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the organizers have said that, yeah, this will

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be transported somewhere

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or maybe given to countries that need supporting

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infrastructure.

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But as far as I'm aware, there's no

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public information on what is the concrete plan.

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So that remains to be seen. And then

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they have built 6 new permanent stadiums,

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in Doha.

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And this is where the accounting gets really

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problematic because

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essentially what they have done is

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they have calculated the emissions associated

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with the construction of all of those stadiums.

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So the total footprint of those stadiums.

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And then they have said

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these stadiums are going to exist for 60

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years. That's their assumption for the lifetime of

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the stadiums,

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and they have spread out

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the construction emissions. So not the emissions from

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the use of the stadiums, which logically is

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spread out over the period, but they have

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spread out the emissions from the construction

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of the stadiums

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over that 60 year period.

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And they said, well, the World Cup is

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only going to take place for 1 month.

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And so we're only responsible for a share

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of emissions that corresponds to this 1 month.

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So basically from the total

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emissions associated with the construction of the 6

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new stadiums,

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they take responsibility for a share that is

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1 month divided by 60

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years. So it's a very, very small share

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of,

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of the total emissions, and that's why we

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say this probably underestimates the emissions by

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about 1.4

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megatons, so 1,400,000

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tons.

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And so and that's that's quite a conservative

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estimate.

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And so if you add that to their

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existing estimate, their total footprint is closer to

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5 megatons rather than the 3.6 that they

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that they have announced. So that's kind of

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the

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the the main problem with the accounting, let's

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say, is this

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idea or this this kind of artificial spread

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of emissions and saying we're only responsible for

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this small share.

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And then turning to the second issue of

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the of the carbon credits.

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So I'm not sure how familiar you are

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with carbon markets, but just to give you,

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like, a rapid overview, the idea is that

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you have projects that are implemented,

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in different countries around the world. And then

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these projects,

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reduce emissions and they generate comm credits. Each

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credit is supposed to represent 1 ton of

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CO 2 that has been reduced.

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And so to compensate all of their emissions,

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according to their own calculations,

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they will FIFA and the Qatari organizers would

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need to buy 3,600,000

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credits because their footprint is 3,600,000

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tons.

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So far, they have an agreement with one

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standard called the Global Carbon Council

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to purchase 1,800,000

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credits.

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So they have an existing agreement for,

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yeah, like about about half roughly,

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of the total that they have to buy.

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They have so far purchased,

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slightly less than 200,000.

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So they have 200,000

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from the 3,600,000

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that they need. So they're pretty far off

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the mark.

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And it is noteworthy that

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the this global carbon council that they are

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buying credits from,

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has basically been established by Qatar. So instead

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of like, the whole idea of having standards,

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and the whole structure of the carbon market

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is that you have these independent standards and

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programs

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that are in charge of registering the projects.

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They checked with they check whether project is

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credible. Like, is it really reducing emissions? And

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is it harming local communities, for example? Does

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it do the accounting properly, etcetera?

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And you have you have a few standards

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that exist. There are 2 major standards that

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are called the the verified carbon standard and

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gold standard. So these are kind of,

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let's say, independent organizations.

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But instead of buying credits from those,

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the Qatari organizers have basically set up their

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own standard, which is the Global Carbon Council,

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which raises serious questions about the independence

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of that standard because the whole point of

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having a standard is to have this third

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party that can,

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yeah, be there as a

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as an external voice to to to guarantee

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the quality of the credits. So they have

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established their own standard.

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And so far, the organizers have purchased the

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credits from 3 projects.

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So in our report, we'd wrote, 2, but

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since we published our report, there's a third

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one that has, sold credits.

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All of them are renewable energy projects. 2

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of them are in Turkey. 1 is in

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Serbia.

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The issue with those credits,

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is so they're very they're not it's not

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really credible to compensate your emissions with those.

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And that's because these projects are,

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they're set to be not non additional,

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which is a bit of a technical term

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to say that basically these projects would happen

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anyway regardless of whether they can sell credits

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or not.

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Because I mean, here we're talking about relatively

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large scale renewable energy projects in Turkey and

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Serbia. These are profitable. Like they're just economically

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viable.

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Expanding renewable energy generation in most countries around

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the world,

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is economically viable.

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In a few countries, it's not like in

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least developed countries, for example. And so there,

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it might still make sense, but those projects

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would definitely have happened without the sale of

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the credits. And so while FIFA is claiming,

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well, we're paying for these extra reductions and

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thanks to our money, we're generating these and

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so it's offsetting our emissions.

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The reality is basically they're sending some money

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to a project that doesn't need it.

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And so the emissions that, the reductions are

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generated by those projects are maybe real, but

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they're completely

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unrelated

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to the purchase of common credits by FIFA.

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And so it's just inaccurate to say that

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this compensates for any sort of,

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emissions.

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And so that's that kind of explains why,

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these

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offsets are not credible,

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and why as a result, the whole kind

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of compensation claim is not is not credible.

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Can you tell me a bit more about

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the legacy of the stadiums? I mean, that

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the stadium that's gonna move after the games.

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That sounds really interesting if a little difficult.

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I think the the dismountable stadium is it's

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an interesting idea. Like in theory, I think

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it's a good idea if we're

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stay within this mindset of continuing to organize

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a FIFA World Cup in the specific location

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every 4 years. Like, as long as we

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don't have, like, a a bigger systemic

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think rethink of how these events are run.

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It's an interesting idea to at least be

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able to reuse some of the stadiums and

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move them.

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However,

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as I was saying, there's no concrete plan

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to move it yet. And there is an

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interesting,

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accounting,

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study and report from FIFA on the dismantled

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stadium

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where they basically explained that actually the footprint

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of the dismantled stadium is higher

276
00:10:27,139 --> 00:10:29,620
than of a regular stadium, for example, because

277
00:10:29,620 --> 00:10:30,600
you actually need,

278
00:10:31,620 --> 00:10:34,019
more robust material because it needs to be

279
00:10:34,019 --> 00:10:35,080
to sustain the

280
00:10:35,779 --> 00:10:38,039
the dismounting and then transport and then reassembly,

281
00:10:38,100 --> 00:10:40,200
etcetera. And so it's actually more polluting.

282
00:10:40,995 --> 00:10:42,914
And if you had a scenario, let's say

283
00:10:42,914 --> 00:10:43,414
where,

284
00:10:44,355 --> 00:10:47,075
you dismantle the stadium, you transport it very

285
00:10:47,075 --> 00:10:49,634
far and then you reuse it once, then

286
00:10:49,634 --> 00:10:51,575
it's actually worse than,

287
00:10:51,955 --> 00:10:54,054
building 2 different permanent stadiums.

288
00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,220
And so the overall impact

289
00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:58,200
really depends. And when I say that it's

290
00:10:58,200 --> 00:10:59,960
from FIFA's numbers, right? So it's not my

291
00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:00,460
numbers.

292
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,820
So the overall impact really depends on

293
00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:06,139
how much is going to be reused

294
00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:08,679
and how far and how many times it's

295
00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:09,580
going to be transported.

296
00:11:09,924 --> 00:11:12,325
So overall, I think nice idea in theory

297
00:11:12,325 --> 00:11:13,225
could be beneficial,

298
00:11:13,684 --> 00:11:15,764
but it's not really helping like a more

299
00:11:15,764 --> 00:11:18,085
system change. And it really depends on how

300
00:11:18,085 --> 00:11:19,625
it's going to be implemented concretely.

301
00:11:20,245 --> 00:11:22,725
What about the other stadiums? Qatar has,

302
00:11:23,879 --> 00:11:26,200
well claims that there are legacy plans in

303
00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:28,440
place, so they have plans to reuse all

304
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:29,259
of the stadiums.

305
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,600
However, in the public domain so far, there

306
00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,654
are two lines per stadium, basically one sentence.

307
00:11:36,695 --> 00:11:38,935
And it's incredibly vague. So it says things

308
00:11:38,935 --> 00:11:39,435
like,

309
00:11:40,615 --> 00:11:41,274
will be

310
00:11:41,735 --> 00:11:45,035
transformed into a boutique hotel and sporting infrastructure

311
00:11:45,335 --> 00:11:46,955
for university, for example.

312
00:11:47,735 --> 00:11:49,929
Some of the some of the stadiums would

313
00:11:49,929 --> 00:11:52,990
be used for hosting local football teams.

314
00:11:53,370 --> 00:11:56,409
1 of them would host the Qatar women

315
00:11:56,409 --> 00:11:57,309
football team,

316
00:11:57,769 --> 00:12:00,269
which I don't think is playing many games.

317
00:12:01,924 --> 00:12:04,745
So there's definitely a big question mark over,

318
00:12:05,365 --> 00:12:07,204
how these stadiums are going to be used

319
00:12:07,204 --> 00:12:08,024
in the future.

320
00:12:08,804 --> 00:12:10,485
They have also said that they will,

321
00:12:11,125 --> 00:12:12,804
take out some of the seats because the

322
00:12:12,804 --> 00:12:15,784
organizers themselves recognize that they don't need

323
00:12:16,450 --> 00:12:18,610
8 world class stadiums in one single city.

324
00:12:18,610 --> 00:12:20,370
And so they say, okay, we're gonna downsize.

325
00:12:20,370 --> 00:12:22,529
We're gonna reduce the number of seats, and

326
00:12:22,529 --> 00:12:25,330
we're gonna donate those to, countries that are

327
00:12:25,330 --> 00:12:26,789
in need of sporting infrastructure.

328
00:12:28,129 --> 00:12:30,529
Again, 0 concrete plans on what's gonna happen

329
00:12:30,529 --> 00:12:32,835
to those seats and how they're gonna kind

330
00:12:33,134 --> 00:12:35,215
of distribute these. I think it's something it's

331
00:12:35,215 --> 00:12:37,695
close to 200,000 seats. I think it was

332
00:12:37,695 --> 00:12:39,794
170 if I remember correctly. So,

333
00:12:40,254 --> 00:12:41,855
yeah, it's a bit there's a big question

334
00:12:41,855 --> 00:12:44,095
mark over that. Is it actually possible to

335
00:12:44,095 --> 00:12:45,759
put on a world cup in a 0

336
00:12:45,759 --> 00:12:48,639
carbon or carbon neutral way? I I think

337
00:12:48,639 --> 00:12:50,100
it's it's not possible.

338
00:12:50,799 --> 00:12:53,040
I mean, holding it as a zero carbon

339
00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,160
event in absolute terms is impossible today,

340
00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,475
because there is no way among other things,

341
00:12:59,475 --> 00:13:01,875
there's no way to decarbonize the aviation sector

342
00:13:01,875 --> 00:13:03,014
right now. There's no

343
00:13:03,554 --> 00:13:05,894
real perspective to do it over the next

344
00:13:06,035 --> 00:13:08,054
10, 15, 20 years. And so

345
00:13:08,595 --> 00:13:10,914
that kind of connects to what I was

346
00:13:10,914 --> 00:13:13,370
hinting at earlier of, like, having a system

347
00:13:13,370 --> 00:13:15,450
change and rethinking how the World Cup might

348
00:13:15,450 --> 00:13:16,190
be organized,

349
00:13:16,970 --> 00:13:18,570
in the sense that if we continue with

350
00:13:18,570 --> 00:13:20,730
the logic of hosting it in one single

351
00:13:20,730 --> 00:13:23,210
country and having everyone flight there and not

352
00:13:23,210 --> 00:13:25,450
really caring about whether that country already has

353
00:13:25,450 --> 00:13:27,149
the, necessary infrastructure

354
00:13:27,605 --> 00:13:29,205
that is definitely going to come at a

355
00:13:29,205 --> 00:13:29,705
cost.

356
00:13:30,165 --> 00:13:32,404
In theory, you could compensate for that. But

357
00:13:32,404 --> 00:13:35,045
in practice, the quality of the carbon markets

358
00:13:35,045 --> 00:13:36,184
and the the

359
00:13:36,485 --> 00:13:39,045
robustness of the carbon credits, carbon offsets that

360
00:13:39,045 --> 00:13:41,549
are being sold is really lacking. And a

361
00:13:41,549 --> 00:13:43,629
lot of the credits that are being purchased

362
00:13:43,629 --> 00:13:46,190
at the moment by companies and, the source

363
00:13:46,190 --> 00:13:47,250
of event organizers,

364
00:13:47,789 --> 00:13:50,350
they suffer from similar similar problems to what

365
00:13:50,350 --> 00:13:52,589
I just described of, yeah, coming from projects

366
00:13:52,589 --> 00:13:54,769
that would not happen, that would happen anyway,

367
00:13:54,830 --> 00:13:55,330
or

368
00:13:56,054 --> 00:13:56,794
coming from,

369
00:13:57,894 --> 00:14:00,855
projects that completely overestimate their impact. So they

370
00:14:00,855 --> 00:14:02,534
might be good projects, but they just say,

371
00:14:02,534 --> 00:14:04,294
oh yeah, we've reduced like a 1000000 tons

372
00:14:04,294 --> 00:14:06,315
of CO2, even though they reduced just 100,000.

373
00:14:07,654 --> 00:14:09,654
So long story short, no, it's not very

374
00:14:09,735 --> 00:14:12,340
it's not credible that this can be hosted

375
00:14:12,340 --> 00:14:14,340
without an impact in the climate. Is there

376
00:14:14,340 --> 00:14:15,720
anything they could have done?

377
00:14:16,259 --> 00:14:18,660
I think there are pretty things that could

378
00:14:18,660 --> 00:14:19,399
be done,

379
00:14:19,940 --> 00:14:20,440
in

380
00:14:20,899 --> 00:14:22,519
building a more sustainable,

381
00:14:24,095 --> 00:14:26,595
trying to focus on more sustainable buildings, developing,

382
00:14:27,375 --> 00:14:30,095
local transport, which to some extent, Qatar has

383
00:14:30,095 --> 00:14:30,914
tried to do,

384
00:14:32,014 --> 00:14:35,855
developing definitely increasing renewable power generation to be

385
00:14:35,855 --> 00:14:36,174
able to,

386
00:14:37,399 --> 00:14:38,779
generate more green electricity,

387
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:40,779
during the event, but also,

388
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:43,639
afterwards, because that's also one of the challenges

389
00:14:43,639 --> 00:14:45,480
is like trying to make sure that it

390
00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:47,820
contributes to a more sustainable long term transition.

391
00:14:48,759 --> 00:14:49,259
However,

392
00:14:50,045 --> 00:14:52,045
I'm struggling as you know this, I'm struggling

393
00:14:52,045 --> 00:14:54,065
to answer this question because I think

394
00:14:54,365 --> 00:14:55,345
it's a bit

395
00:14:56,125 --> 00:14:57,504
and the truth is the right

396
00:14:58,925 --> 00:15:00,684
thing to focus on, right? To try to

397
00:15:00,684 --> 00:15:03,245
make these events a little less climate damaging

398
00:15:03,245 --> 00:15:04,990
at the margin. I think as long as

399
00:15:04,990 --> 00:15:07,149
we stay within the model where we organize

400
00:15:07,149 --> 00:15:09,309
every 4 years, an event that attracts a

401
00:15:09,309 --> 00:15:10,990
1000000 people from around the world in a

402
00:15:10,990 --> 00:15:12,450
place that doesn't have the infrastructure,

403
00:15:13,470 --> 00:15:15,149
it's going to have any climate impact. Right?

404
00:15:15,149 --> 00:15:16,669
And it's going to stay with a massive

405
00:15:16,669 --> 00:15:18,690
climate impact for the next decades.

406
00:15:19,295 --> 00:15:21,375
And so if we at the same time,

407
00:15:21,375 --> 00:15:23,215
it's hard to say, like, yeah, let's just,

408
00:15:23,535 --> 00:15:26,335
scrap football. Right? Like, we also want to,

409
00:15:28,735 --> 00:15:30,595
be realistic here. And so

410
00:15:30,975 --> 00:15:32,735
I think the balance is in rethinking how

411
00:15:32,735 --> 00:15:34,195
the tournament is organized.

412
00:15:35,019 --> 00:15:35,519
And

413
00:15:36,139 --> 00:15:38,139
I think they're yeah. It's much more of

414
00:15:38,139 --> 00:15:38,799
a systemic

415
00:15:39,740 --> 00:15:41,740
approach, and I'm probably not the best person

416
00:15:41,740 --> 00:15:43,660
to think about this, but definitely FIFA should

417
00:15:43,660 --> 00:15:45,360
have a think about it and probably,

418
00:15:46,059 --> 00:15:48,175
people outside of FIFA as well. But you

419
00:15:48,175 --> 00:15:50,335
could have options, you know, from the more,

420
00:15:50,335 --> 00:15:52,894
most kind of crazy idealist situations where you

421
00:15:52,894 --> 00:15:55,695
just identify some international territory, where you just

422
00:15:55,695 --> 00:15:57,154
have all sporting events

423
00:15:57,615 --> 00:15:59,695
to more practicable things where you say, okay,

424
00:15:59,695 --> 00:16:00,995
we're just gonna have

425
00:16:01,350 --> 00:16:03,669
teams play in the nearest stadium, like the

426
00:16:03,669 --> 00:16:05,669
stadium that's in between the two countries, for

427
00:16:05,669 --> 00:16:07,669
example. And then you try to instead of

428
00:16:07,669 --> 00:16:10,549
having everything in the same country and having

429
00:16:10,549 --> 00:16:12,570
everyone to fly there, you try to see

430
00:16:13,029 --> 00:16:14,754
I'm sure you could. Right? Like, instead of

431
00:16:14,754 --> 00:16:17,875
having consultants who model the, impacts of building

432
00:16:17,875 --> 00:16:19,735
stadiums, we could have consultants who model

433
00:16:20,195 --> 00:16:22,674
where can teams play to minimize the emissions

434
00:16:22,674 --> 00:16:23,414
from travel.

435
00:16:23,715 --> 00:16:26,595
And you then you, reduce travel emissions, but

436
00:16:26,595 --> 00:16:28,779
then you also don't have any infrastructure emissions

437
00:16:28,779 --> 00:16:30,879
because you use existing infrastructure. So

438
00:16:31,259 --> 00:16:33,340
to me, and again, just kind of outside,

439
00:16:33,340 --> 00:16:34,940
I'm just speaking as a lay person, I

440
00:16:34,940 --> 00:16:36,720
guess, but someone who has been,

441
00:16:37,100 --> 00:16:39,200
talking a lot about FIFA lately.

442
00:16:39,820 --> 00:16:40,784
I feel like

443
00:16:41,264 --> 00:16:43,424
maybe that's where you find more solutions. Try

444
00:16:43,424 --> 00:16:45,605
to think about how you can completely transform

445
00:16:45,664 --> 00:16:46,725
the the event.

446
00:16:47,105 --> 00:16:49,424
Beyond your report, is there any accountability for

447
00:16:49,424 --> 00:16:51,345
them saying these things, you know, if if

448
00:16:51,345 --> 00:16:52,865
they're not true? I mean, that's a tricky

449
00:16:52,865 --> 00:16:54,565
one. Not really

450
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,320
in the sense that they're just making these

451
00:16:57,320 --> 00:16:58,220
public announcements.

452
00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:00,059
The main thing that

453
00:17:00,759 --> 00:17:02,379
could be used to hold them accountable,

454
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,420
are laws on misleading advertisement,

455
00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:08,299
false and misleading advertisement, which exist

456
00:17:08,825 --> 00:17:10,684
in many countries around the world, definitely,

457
00:17:10,984 --> 00:17:12,845
definitely in Europe, UK, US.

458
00:17:14,984 --> 00:17:17,005
Whether and how these are applicable

459
00:17:17,384 --> 00:17:18,765
is quite difficult.

460
00:17:19,545 --> 00:17:20,045
It's

461
00:17:21,279 --> 00:17:23,039
it's broader than just this claim. Right? Like,

462
00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:24,799
there are a lot of companies now making

463
00:17:24,799 --> 00:17:27,220
carbon neutrality and net zero claims, and

464
00:17:27,519 --> 00:17:30,559
increasingly, there are court court cases against this.

465
00:17:31,119 --> 00:17:33,200
There's one in the Netherlands, for example. There's

466
00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:34,154
a court case against

467
00:17:35,115 --> 00:17:37,595
KLM, the the Dutch airline, where they said

468
00:17:37,595 --> 00:17:39,674
they are gonna be carbon neutral. And there's

469
00:17:39,674 --> 00:17:41,755
a court case saying this is not just

470
00:17:41,755 --> 00:17:42,894
misleading advertisement.

471
00:17:43,835 --> 00:17:46,234
So that's one way that companies could be

472
00:17:46,234 --> 00:17:48,820
held accountable, but it is very difficult because

473
00:17:48,820 --> 00:17:50,519
the legislation is quite old,

474
00:17:51,700 --> 00:17:54,039
and it's also very expensive. Right? And, like,

475
00:17:54,100 --> 00:17:55,779
it's basically NGOs doing that,

476
00:17:56,259 --> 00:17:58,180
and NGOs don't have the budget or the

477
00:17:58,180 --> 00:18:00,500
resources to retake these companies to court on

478
00:18:00,500 --> 00:18:01,934
misleading advertisement claims.

479
00:18:02,495 --> 00:18:05,535
So in practice, it's not happening so much.

480
00:18:05,535 --> 00:18:07,855
This isn't the only net zero claim that

481
00:18:07,855 --> 00:18:09,535
you've examined, is it? How did the others

482
00:18:09,535 --> 00:18:10,595
hold up to scrutiny?

483
00:18:11,535 --> 00:18:14,015
So we did the 2 main studies we

484
00:18:14,015 --> 00:18:16,414
did on this was 1 on carbon neutral

485
00:18:16,414 --> 00:18:17,795
fossil fuels. So,

486
00:18:18,470 --> 00:18:20,630
yeah, as you can guess, the result was

487
00:18:20,630 --> 00:18:22,170
not so much that they are credible.

488
00:18:22,710 --> 00:18:24,950
It was mostly about it was focused on

489
00:18:24,950 --> 00:18:28,150
LNG shipments. So natural gas, it's quite, it's

490
00:18:28,150 --> 00:18:29,670
quite a trend at the moment. There are

491
00:18:29,670 --> 00:18:32,009
a lot of, deals for carbon neutral

492
00:18:32,309 --> 00:18:33,130
gas shipments,

493
00:18:34,805 --> 00:18:37,605
which are problematic in various ways. And then

494
00:18:37,605 --> 00:18:38,744
another one was,

495
00:18:39,445 --> 00:18:41,285
not so much on carbon neutrality, but on

496
00:18:41,285 --> 00:18:42,644
net zero, which is, I mean, in a

497
00:18:42,644 --> 00:18:45,045
way, very similar or the same thing and

498
00:18:45,045 --> 00:18:47,009
the net zero targets of companies. So we

499
00:18:47,009 --> 00:18:49,269
looked at the net zero targets of 25

500
00:18:49,330 --> 00:18:51,269
of the world's largest companies.

501
00:18:52,130 --> 00:18:55,029
So like household names like Microsoft and Facebook

502
00:18:55,089 --> 00:18:55,330
and,

503
00:18:56,049 --> 00:18:57,109
Walmart, etcetera.

504
00:18:57,809 --> 00:19:00,309
And basically looking at what's behind their announcements.

505
00:19:00,450 --> 00:19:02,049
Like, is there an actual plan to reduce

506
00:19:02,049 --> 00:19:04,505
emissions? Do they cover all of their emissions?

507
00:19:04,505 --> 00:19:06,265
To what extent do they rely on carbon

508
00:19:06,265 --> 00:19:08,365
credits? And from those, we found

509
00:19:08,664 --> 00:19:11,305
one that was, that was kind of, that

510
00:19:11,305 --> 00:19:14,204
had an acceptable level of ambition, let's say,

511
00:19:14,505 --> 00:19:15,565
which was the Maersk,

512
00:19:16,025 --> 00:19:17,244
the shipping company.

513
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:21,599
But, yeah, all the other ones were I

514
00:19:21,599 --> 00:19:23,680
mean, one of the main issue, there's definitely

515
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:25,680
the reliance on carbon offsets for sure. But

516
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:27,380
another issue is the fact that,

517
00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,559
the targets often don't really cover all of

518
00:19:30,559 --> 00:19:32,184
their emissions. And that's what I was saying

519
00:19:32,184 --> 00:19:33,785
also with FIFA, where they just say, okay,

520
00:19:33,785 --> 00:19:36,105
we're gonna become neutral, but then or climate

521
00:19:36,105 --> 00:19:37,945
neutral, but then they don't cover all of

522
00:19:37,945 --> 00:19:40,184
their emissions. It seems to me clearly a

523
00:19:40,184 --> 00:19:42,765
good thing if large companies and large organizations

524
00:19:43,065 --> 00:19:45,485
and indeed large sporting events and countries

525
00:19:46,025 --> 00:19:47,009
want to be seen

526
00:19:47,410 --> 00:19:48,630
to be green,

527
00:19:48,930 --> 00:19:51,190
to be doing things that are benefiting

528
00:19:51,809 --> 00:19:54,150
or at least not harming the planet.

529
00:19:54,609 --> 00:19:57,430
If nothing else, it indicates that public opinion

530
00:19:57,490 --> 00:19:59,894
requires them to do something about it. It.

531
00:19:59,894 --> 00:20:01,734
The idea of playing the World Cup in

532
00:20:01,734 --> 00:20:04,615
neutral venues or not in a specific country

533
00:20:04,615 --> 00:20:07,174
around the world does seem as though it

534
00:20:07,174 --> 00:20:08,695
might be a bit of a challenge for

535
00:20:08,695 --> 00:20:09,595
football fans.

536
00:20:09,975 --> 00:20:11,994
But if COVID 19 taught us anything,

537
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:13,539
it's surely

538
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:15,059
that escapism

539
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:16,660
in the form of sport

540
00:20:17,039 --> 00:20:19,940
is better if it exists in any form,

541
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,599
even if it's not the perfect form that

542
00:20:23,599 --> 00:20:25,715
we're used to. As I say, I'm a

543
00:20:25,715 --> 00:20:27,735
season ticket holder at Bristol City.

544
00:20:28,115 --> 00:20:30,355
And you could go to Ashton Gate, the

545
00:20:30,355 --> 00:20:33,075
home of Bristol City, and not really notice

546
00:20:33,075 --> 00:20:35,654
that anything was happening that was any different

547
00:20:35,715 --> 00:20:37,795
to the way that football has been done

548
00:20:37,795 --> 00:20:39,095
for many years now.

549
00:20:39,519 --> 00:20:40,019
But

550
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:41,539
if you look closely,

551
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:42,740
you'll notice

552
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,240
some detail. Outside the south stand, you'll find

553
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,980
a bicycle repair center which is made available

554
00:20:49,279 --> 00:20:50,019
for fans

555
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:52,875
to encourage them to cycle to the stadium.

556
00:20:53,275 --> 00:20:55,355
And while the club is keen not to

557
00:20:55,355 --> 00:20:57,694
be seen as making grandiose gestures

558
00:20:57,994 --> 00:20:59,134
or indeed greenwashing,

559
00:20:59,755 --> 00:21:03,035
they did recently announce something called project white

560
00:21:03,035 --> 00:21:05,194
beam. So before one of the matches this

561
00:21:05,194 --> 00:21:07,375
month, I thought I'd take the opportunity

562
00:21:07,839 --> 00:21:09,539
to find out what it was all about.

563
00:21:09,599 --> 00:21:12,159
I'm Peter Smith. I'm project manager at Bristol

564
00:21:12,159 --> 00:21:14,480
Sport in Ashton Gate. And and one of

565
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:15,519
those projects is,

566
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,839
project managing project White Beam, which is the

567
00:21:17,839 --> 00:21:20,419
cross group environmental sustainability initiative,

568
00:21:20,799 --> 00:21:23,345
between Bristol City, Bristol Bears, Bristol Fly, and

569
00:21:23,345 --> 00:21:26,005
Ashton Gate. Okay. So that's football, rugby,

570
00:21:26,705 --> 00:21:29,904
basketball? Yep. And the stadium more widely? And

571
00:21:29,904 --> 00:21:31,904
the stadium itself. Yeah. Because Ashton Gate in

572
00:21:31,904 --> 00:21:33,984
it on its own right, it's a big

573
00:21:33,984 --> 00:21:34,484
established,

574
00:21:35,184 --> 00:21:36,565
you know, Monday to Sunday,

575
00:21:36,970 --> 00:21:39,690
business events, conferencing, exhibition centers. So the reason

576
00:21:39,690 --> 00:21:41,849
why it's called Project Whitebeam, it's not a

577
00:21:41,849 --> 00:21:43,950
random name. We didn't want to talk about,

578
00:21:45,130 --> 00:21:46,269
0 because

579
00:21:46,970 --> 00:21:49,769
our project is not just about carbon. It's

580
00:21:49,769 --> 00:21:52,169
about waste and biodiversity, etcetera. We didn't want

581
00:21:52,169 --> 00:21:54,384
to label it green, a, because neither none

582
00:21:54,384 --> 00:21:56,325
of our clubs wear green, but also

583
00:21:57,585 --> 00:21:59,585
the green message isn't for everybody. It turns

584
00:21:59,585 --> 00:22:02,065
some people off before they even open it,

585
00:22:02,065 --> 00:22:03,424
open the book so sweet, they won't even

586
00:22:03,424 --> 00:22:04,484
take it off the shelf.

587
00:22:05,825 --> 00:22:07,765
So we wanted to find something that was

588
00:22:08,049 --> 00:22:10,450
uniquely Bristola, and the whitebeam is a plant

589
00:22:10,450 --> 00:22:11,809
of the rose family. It's got a few

590
00:22:11,809 --> 00:22:14,049
species that are endemic only to Avon Gordy

591
00:22:14,049 --> 00:22:16,529
in the woods. So from the stadium, you

592
00:22:16,529 --> 00:22:18,049
can literally see the only place in the

593
00:22:18,049 --> 00:22:19,910
world that this grows. It's uniquely Bristola,

594
00:22:20,505 --> 00:22:22,025
it's fragile, and it's beautiful. And I think

595
00:22:22,025 --> 00:22:23,384
that's what we're trying to self convey in

596
00:22:23,384 --> 00:22:23,884
that.

597
00:22:24,184 --> 00:22:26,045
So Project White Beam was,

598
00:22:27,464 --> 00:22:27,964
was

599
00:22:28,265 --> 00:22:31,144
born out of a realization that we, as

600
00:22:31,144 --> 00:22:33,005
a sporting group, needed to,

601
00:22:34,210 --> 00:22:36,710
understand more about our impact on the environment.

602
00:22:37,410 --> 00:22:39,730
So it was initiated pre COVID, and we

603
00:22:39,730 --> 00:22:41,750
actually project we launched the project,

604
00:22:42,690 --> 00:22:43,590
just before

605
00:22:44,130 --> 00:22:45,350
the the first lockdown,

606
00:22:45,730 --> 00:22:46,230
internally.

607
00:22:46,930 --> 00:22:47,430
And

608
00:22:48,130 --> 00:22:50,085
seeing a little storm on the horizon that

609
00:22:50,085 --> 00:22:51,845
was COVID, we we kept the ship in

610
00:22:51,845 --> 00:22:53,125
the harbor actually and just,

611
00:22:53,924 --> 00:22:56,005
tried to make progress while we could while

612
00:22:56,005 --> 00:22:58,164
things were locked down. And then we probably

613
00:22:58,164 --> 00:23:00,984
launched it in August this year, 2022.

614
00:23:01,809 --> 00:23:03,730
And what Project White Beam seeks to do

615
00:23:03,730 --> 00:23:05,830
across the sporting group is is to

616
00:23:06,849 --> 00:23:08,789
recognize our impact on the environment,

617
00:23:09,410 --> 00:23:11,349
measure it, and mitigate it.

618
00:23:11,809 --> 00:23:14,369
It's not about saving the world. And we

619
00:23:14,369 --> 00:23:16,195
know that we won't be perfect certainly now,

620
00:23:16,195 --> 00:23:17,875
and we may not be perfect for for

621
00:23:17,875 --> 00:23:19,475
a long while yet. But we do realize

622
00:23:19,475 --> 00:23:21,315
that we have an impact. So it's just

623
00:23:21,315 --> 00:23:23,955
about starting that that progress and and setting

624
00:23:23,955 --> 00:23:26,515
targets. So the the clubs have signed up

625
00:23:26,515 --> 00:23:28,775
to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework,

626
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,799
which gives them a target of 50% reduction

627
00:23:31,799 --> 00:23:34,059
in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

628
00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:36,299
and net 0 by 2040.

629
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,519
Now we don't know exactly how we're gonna

630
00:23:38,519 --> 00:23:40,200
do that yet, but that's part of the

631
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,140
point of it is to set the target.

632
00:23:42,365 --> 00:23:43,724
No way you need to get to and

633
00:23:43,724 --> 00:23:45,325
then worry about how to get there. Is

634
00:23:45,325 --> 00:23:48,045
it possible for thousands of people to come

635
00:23:48,045 --> 00:23:50,205
to a football match in a net zero

636
00:23:50,205 --> 00:23:52,384
way? I'd say at the moment,

637
00:23:52,765 --> 00:23:55,505
probably not, if we're honest. And

638
00:23:55,965 --> 00:23:57,299
going out to where we are at the

639
00:23:57,299 --> 00:23:59,620
minute, I think the the clubs and the

640
00:23:59,620 --> 00:24:00,120
stadiums

641
00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:02,680
are probably in a similar position to where

642
00:24:02,900 --> 00:24:04,759
many of us are in our personal lives,

643
00:24:05,059 --> 00:24:05,559
where

644
00:24:05,940 --> 00:24:07,000
we have an impact,

645
00:24:08,340 --> 00:24:10,974
every time we do anything. And I don't

646
00:24:10,974 --> 00:24:12,815
want us to get hung up on that

647
00:24:12,815 --> 00:24:14,095
on a personal level as well. As soon

648
00:24:14,095 --> 00:24:15,054
as I wake up in the morning, I

649
00:24:15,054 --> 00:24:16,575
flick a light on. You can have some

650
00:24:16,575 --> 00:24:18,494
solar panels. You can have green energy supply.

651
00:24:18,494 --> 00:24:20,174
There's still gonna be some impact in there

652
00:24:20,174 --> 00:24:21,454
somewhere. As soon as you go to work,

653
00:24:21,454 --> 00:24:22,980
you can have electric electric car, it will

654
00:24:22,980 --> 00:24:25,619
have some impact. Even a bike, it has

655
00:24:25,619 --> 00:24:27,140
some impact. It's still got tires, it's still

656
00:24:27,140 --> 00:24:28,599
got metal, etcetera, etcetera.

657
00:24:28,980 --> 00:24:29,480
But

658
00:24:29,859 --> 00:24:30,440
I think

659
00:24:31,059 --> 00:24:33,059
long term, there there will be a way

660
00:24:33,059 --> 00:24:34,759
where we as individuals,

661
00:24:35,380 --> 00:24:37,514
as clubs and countries and and and globally

662
00:24:37,514 --> 00:24:38,954
as well, will find a way to do

663
00:24:38,954 --> 00:24:40,634
things in a truly sustainable manner. I think

664
00:24:40,634 --> 00:24:41,375
we have to.

665
00:24:41,754 --> 00:24:43,914
So, yeah, we don't have all the answers

666
00:24:43,914 --> 00:24:45,595
yet, but I think that's gotta be the

667
00:24:45,595 --> 00:24:47,194
aim. Okay. So what sort of thing are

668
00:24:47,194 --> 00:24:47,774
you doing?

669
00:24:48,474 --> 00:24:49,774
It's pretty broad. So

670
00:24:50,154 --> 00:24:51,900
the Project White Beam seeks

671
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:53,259
to look across

672
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,119
different things of the environment if you if

673
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:57,880
that makes any sense. So we look at

674
00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,720
climate change, we look at waste, we look

675
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:00,380
at water,

676
00:25:00,759 --> 00:25:02,519
we look at air quality, we look at

677
00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:03,019
biodiversity.

678
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,975
So it's not purely a carbon project. It's

679
00:25:06,975 --> 00:25:08,515
not purely a waste project.

680
00:25:09,695 --> 00:25:11,455
We've already started to make some progress on

681
00:25:11,455 --> 00:25:13,315
a lot of these things. So for example,

682
00:25:13,535 --> 00:25:15,695
food. I think most people realize that food

683
00:25:15,695 --> 00:25:18,035
is something that we, as individuals,

684
00:25:18,815 --> 00:25:19,555
all consume.

685
00:25:20,015 --> 00:25:22,309
You put 25 1,000 people in the stadium,

686
00:25:22,309 --> 00:25:24,230
that's quite a lot of food and drink.

687
00:25:24,230 --> 00:25:25,990
So we know that there's a there's a

688
00:25:25,990 --> 00:25:29,029
bigger impact there. Project White Beam, we and

689
00:25:29,029 --> 00:25:30,009
what we've achieved

690
00:25:30,390 --> 00:25:32,950
on on food, for example, is we've looked

691
00:25:32,950 --> 00:25:33,769
at food

692
00:25:35,375 --> 00:25:37,535
supply. So over 50% of the products sold

693
00:25:37,535 --> 00:25:39,214
here today would have come from within less

694
00:25:39,214 --> 00:25:40,755
than 12 miles of the stadium.

695
00:25:41,134 --> 00:25:42,894
Now, I don't know for sure about every

696
00:25:42,894 --> 00:25:45,775
club, but that's pretty unique where you've got

697
00:25:45,775 --> 00:25:47,934
that much stuff in Bristol Beer Factory, who

698
00:25:47,934 --> 00:25:49,234
last summer we went into

699
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,200
partnership with and supply a lot of our

700
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:52,480
beer and ale products. It's literally 350 meters

701
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,320
up the road. We've looked at the choices.

702
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:55,380
We've not borrowed

703
00:25:55,759 --> 00:25:56,720
down into the detail of,

704
00:25:57,840 --> 00:25:58,900
sourcing yet and procurement.

705
00:25:59,360 --> 00:26:01,869
But we do know that there should be

706
00:26:05,505 --> 00:26:07,345
availability for plant based foods. And I think

707
00:26:07,345 --> 00:26:09,424
we worked out so looking at it yesterday,

708
00:26:09,424 --> 00:26:11,365
I think it's something like 19 vegetarian

709
00:26:11,904 --> 00:26:12,404
options,

710
00:26:12,945 --> 00:26:14,704
of which I think 17 of those were

711
00:26:14,704 --> 00:26:16,884
hot today. So if you're vegetarian, you've got

712
00:26:16,945 --> 00:26:17,924
19 options.

713
00:26:18,269 --> 00:26:19,809
I am vegetarian, and

714
00:26:20,269 --> 00:26:22,210
I remember going to football grounds,

715
00:26:22,830 --> 00:26:25,390
over the years. And bluntly, I stopped trying

716
00:26:25,390 --> 00:26:27,070
because I'd get to so many grounds. And

717
00:26:27,070 --> 00:26:28,509
you'd say, as especially as an away fan,

718
00:26:28,509 --> 00:26:29,869
you'd turn around and say, what's what have

719
00:26:29,869 --> 00:26:31,710
you got that's vegetarian? And it'd be crisps.

720
00:26:31,710 --> 00:26:33,309
And I literally remember eating about 5 bags

721
00:26:33,309 --> 00:26:35,125
of crisps. I was so hungry. We've also,

722
00:26:35,125 --> 00:26:36,565
I think, I think, on top of head

723
00:26:36,565 --> 00:26:38,644
around 15 of those are vegan options as

724
00:26:38,644 --> 00:26:40,025
well. Of our

725
00:26:40,644 --> 00:26:41,944
10 biggest alcoholic,

726
00:26:43,045 --> 00:26:44,664
drinks, they're all vegan.

727
00:26:45,204 --> 00:26:45,704
So

728
00:26:46,085 --> 00:26:48,080
there's a choice there. And then we've looked.

729
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,400
So that's, I guess, the procurement of it

730
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,160
and and what we offer on-site. And then

731
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:52,660
there's

732
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:54,740
the the waste elements as well.

733
00:26:55,039 --> 00:26:55,539
So,

734
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:57,859
the biggest thing is that we

735
00:26:58,559 --> 00:26:59,380
for us,

736
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,815
football clubs can be and stadiums can be

737
00:27:02,815 --> 00:27:04,095
big takeaways, if you like, with a lot

738
00:27:04,095 --> 00:27:04,894
of waste at the end of the day.

739
00:27:04,894 --> 00:27:06,255
You've got a very big peak on a

740
00:27:06,255 --> 00:27:08,515
Saturday and not much of it. So,

741
00:27:09,375 --> 00:27:11,054
we're keen to make sure we're not throwing

742
00:27:11,054 --> 00:27:12,414
surplus pies and pasties in the bin at

743
00:27:12,414 --> 00:27:13,535
the end of the day. So we partnered

744
00:27:13,535 --> 00:27:14,434
with St. Mungo's

745
00:27:15,269 --> 00:27:18,150
Charity, and any surplus food left today that's

746
00:27:18,150 --> 00:27:20,150
safe to be transported off will go less

747
00:27:20,150 --> 00:27:22,090
than a mile away to a women's refuge.

748
00:27:22,869 --> 00:27:25,349
And beyond that as well, we've had now

749
00:27:25,349 --> 00:27:27,109
two and a half years of partnership with

750
00:27:27,109 --> 00:27:29,444
Fair Share Southwest, who operate from

751
00:27:30,244 --> 00:27:30,984
a building just

752
00:27:31,684 --> 00:27:33,605
about 20 meters that way. It's on our

753
00:27:33,605 --> 00:27:34,105
site.

754
00:27:34,484 --> 00:27:36,005
They've had a warehouse asset for 2 and

755
00:27:36,005 --> 00:27:37,304
a half years, and they've

756
00:27:38,085 --> 00:27:40,644
been able to pass on nearly 5,000,000 meals

757
00:27:40,644 --> 00:27:43,605
worth 1,000,000 meals worth of food to people

758
00:27:43,605 --> 00:27:44,744
living with food insecurity.

759
00:27:45,430 --> 00:27:47,349
Now in the early phase of that, some

760
00:27:47,349 --> 00:27:49,830
of that was actually Defra aid, but most

761
00:27:49,830 --> 00:27:51,029
of what they've done over the last couple

762
00:27:51,029 --> 00:27:52,869
of years is food that would otherwise be

763
00:27:52,869 --> 00:27:54,009
surplus from supermarkets.

764
00:27:54,549 --> 00:27:55,910
I I don't have the stats at hand,

765
00:27:55,910 --> 00:27:57,315
but it's literally 100

766
00:27:57,875 --> 00:28:00,454
tons and 100, if not 1,000 of,

767
00:28:01,794 --> 00:28:04,615
of tons of carbon saved through that. So

768
00:28:04,835 --> 00:28:07,315
that has a really, really big impact. It's

769
00:28:07,315 --> 00:28:09,634
not just in the local area. How much

770
00:28:09,634 --> 00:28:11,730
is that Bristol City Football Club

771
00:28:12,210 --> 00:28:15,329
are looking at different ways to avoid waste

772
00:28:15,329 --> 00:28:16,069
in food.

773
00:28:16,450 --> 00:28:19,490
Matt Parsons is the 1st team operations manager

774
00:28:19,490 --> 00:28:21,730
at Bristol City. And a couple of seasons

775
00:28:21,730 --> 00:28:23,190
ago, he started a process

776
00:28:23,569 --> 00:28:26,529
where food that was taken away with the

777
00:28:26,529 --> 00:28:27,029
footballers

778
00:28:27,704 --> 00:28:29,085
would not go to waste.

779
00:28:29,704 --> 00:28:32,044
When they go away, the team food itself,

780
00:28:32,105 --> 00:28:33,865
they have surplus. You're never gonna get it

781
00:28:34,345 --> 00:28:35,565
manage it quite exact.

782
00:28:36,825 --> 00:28:38,505
So, I mean, massive credit for Matt. He's

783
00:28:38,505 --> 00:28:39,945
been doing it for 3 years now. And

784
00:28:39,945 --> 00:28:41,464
I think over the course of 3 years,

785
00:28:41,464 --> 00:28:43,410
he thinks it's about almost a 1000 meals

786
00:28:43,410 --> 00:28:45,330
worth of food over the course of each

787
00:28:45,330 --> 00:28:45,830
season.

788
00:28:46,450 --> 00:28:48,049
And they make the effort to go out

789
00:28:48,049 --> 00:28:51,250
to a local charity run-in the city or

790
00:28:51,250 --> 00:28:53,490
near the the stadium that we're playing at

791
00:28:53,490 --> 00:28:55,830
and get the surplus food to them. And

792
00:28:56,975 --> 00:28:58,815
and the reason I give Matt and his

793
00:28:58,815 --> 00:29:00,575
team a huge amount of credit for that

794
00:29:00,575 --> 00:29:01,795
specifically is that

795
00:29:03,055 --> 00:29:05,315
there's there's often in sport a debate about

796
00:29:05,375 --> 00:29:06,835
team performance versus

797
00:29:08,015 --> 00:29:10,975
environmental, social, consciousness, and all this stuff. And

798
00:29:10,975 --> 00:29:14,190
Matt's found a pathway that it doesn't affect

799
00:29:14,730 --> 00:29:16,509
that. He does it on his own back.

800
00:29:16,970 --> 00:29:17,470
It

801
00:29:18,169 --> 00:29:19,450
they travel a long way to some of

802
00:29:19,450 --> 00:29:21,289
these away games, and they're very, very busy.

803
00:29:21,289 --> 00:29:23,710
And Matt's managed to find a way to

804
00:29:24,410 --> 00:29:26,154
to to you know, that's effort. He has

805
00:29:26,154 --> 00:29:28,255
to go away and find charities and,

806
00:29:29,355 --> 00:29:31,214
and soup kitchens or or shelters

807
00:29:31,515 --> 00:29:33,835
in towns that he doesn't know and find

808
00:29:33,835 --> 00:29:35,355
a a charity that that actually wants that

809
00:29:35,355 --> 00:29:36,875
food. That sounds very silly, but it's not

810
00:29:36,875 --> 00:29:38,954
appropriate for every shelter because they may be

811
00:29:38,954 --> 00:29:41,250
zero food or they may only deal with

812
00:29:41,309 --> 00:29:42,669
a certain supply of food that has to

813
00:29:42,669 --> 00:29:43,569
be regular. So,

814
00:29:43,950 --> 00:29:46,269
you know, Matt got organized because him and

815
00:29:46,269 --> 00:29:48,669
the team wanted to achieve good, and they've

816
00:29:48,669 --> 00:29:50,750
done it. And that's, again, it's 3,000 of

817
00:29:50,750 --> 00:29:52,349
meals that have gone into a mouth rather

818
00:29:52,349 --> 00:29:54,929
than into a bin Mhmm. Which not only

819
00:29:55,390 --> 00:29:58,422
helps producing greenhouse gas emissions. Okay. So, thinking

820
00:29:58,422 --> 00:29:59,479
about the people getting to the stadium, what

821
00:29:59,479 --> 00:29:59,845
can you do as a club for that?

822
00:29:59,845 --> 00:30:00,345
Yeah.

823
00:30:01,365 --> 00:30:03,365
So travel and transport is is another big

824
00:30:03,365 --> 00:30:04,904
hitter. We'd we're

825
00:30:08,769 --> 00:30:10,789
and transport is is another big hitter.

826
00:30:11,890 --> 00:30:13,890
We'd we are in the process of measuring

827
00:30:13,890 --> 00:30:15,569
our benchmark here in terms of greenhouse gas

828
00:30:15,569 --> 00:30:17,170
emissions. We don't know how much of a

829
00:30:17,170 --> 00:30:19,809
percentage it is. Some other leagues and stadiums

830
00:30:19,809 --> 00:30:20,549
around Europe

831
00:30:21,089 --> 00:30:24,164
have estimated that roughly 80% of greenhouse gases

832
00:30:24,164 --> 00:30:24,825
could be

833
00:30:25,125 --> 00:30:26,184
supported travel.

834
00:30:26,804 --> 00:30:29,065
So we're not in direct control of that,

835
00:30:30,325 --> 00:30:32,404
but it is something that we we want

836
00:30:32,404 --> 00:30:34,484
to, you know, got potential to make great

837
00:30:34,484 --> 00:30:35,384
strides in.

838
00:30:36,565 --> 00:30:36,990
So

839
00:30:37,789 --> 00:30:39,390
in terms of that, it's really about trying

840
00:30:39,390 --> 00:30:41,789
to encourage sustainable travel and mass travel wherever

841
00:30:41,789 --> 00:30:44,529
possible and reduce single car usage.

842
00:30:46,029 --> 00:30:47,970
When we redeveloped Ashton Gate

843
00:30:48,269 --> 00:30:50,315
and reopened it so it opened up fully

844
00:30:50,315 --> 00:30:52,634
in 2016, we started to introduce the the

845
00:30:52,634 --> 00:30:54,095
match day shuttle bus routes.

846
00:30:54,714 --> 00:30:55,615
We have 3,

847
00:30:57,035 --> 00:30:58,795
2 from park and ride sites and one

848
00:30:58,795 --> 00:30:59,295
from,

849
00:30:59,674 --> 00:31:01,134
Temple Meads and City Centre.

850
00:31:02,154 --> 00:31:04,250
They are subsidized by the club, and there's

851
00:31:04,250 --> 00:31:06,089
a significant subsidy goes into that.

852
00:31:07,529 --> 00:31:10,809
And I I again, of course, my statistic

853
00:31:10,809 --> 00:31:12,649
here, but I think when we measured it,

854
00:31:12,890 --> 00:31:14,909
over the course of 2019 pre pandemic,

855
00:31:15,384 --> 00:31:16,204
the collective

856
00:31:16,904 --> 00:31:17,404
miles

857
00:31:17,785 --> 00:31:18,345
that we'd,

858
00:31:19,144 --> 00:31:19,804
that we'd

859
00:31:20,105 --> 00:31:22,585
got people or to kilowatts, should I say,

860
00:31:22,585 --> 00:31:23,865
that people have traveled on this bus was

861
00:31:23,865 --> 00:31:25,144
something like 2 and a half 1000000 in

862
00:31:25,144 --> 00:31:26,664
a year. I'll check that. Right.

863
00:31:27,304 --> 00:31:29,464
But it it's it's a lot again, because

864
00:31:29,464 --> 00:31:31,440
of the the power and potential of a

865
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,279
lot of people, you've also got a lot

866
00:31:33,279 --> 00:31:35,200
of potential good to be done. Yeah. So

867
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:36,960
it's, you know, thousands of people every match

868
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,119
day using sustainable travel. In terms of cycling,

869
00:31:39,119 --> 00:31:41,359
we've got cycle racks for free bike pump,

870
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:43,359
to use. And on days like and today's

871
00:31:43,359 --> 00:31:45,434
one of them, we have a bike repair

872
00:31:45,434 --> 00:31:48,315
workshop out there. We appreciate that cycling isn't

873
00:31:48,315 --> 00:31:50,954
gonna be appropriate for everybody due to distance

874
00:31:50,954 --> 00:31:53,194
traveled, ability ability to ride a bike, whatever

875
00:31:53,194 --> 00:31:54,875
it may be. But we do want to

876
00:31:54,875 --> 00:31:56,394
try and take away barriers to do it

877
00:31:56,394 --> 00:31:59,429
and incentivize it. So having Leah out there

878
00:31:59,429 --> 00:32:02,069
at the moment giving cyclists free bike repairs

879
00:32:02,069 --> 00:32:03,130
and and and advice

880
00:32:03,669 --> 00:32:06,309
is starting to to encourage and reward that

881
00:32:06,309 --> 00:32:07,049
that behavior.

882
00:32:07,509 --> 00:32:09,609
So, yeah, we really want to pull on

883
00:32:09,750 --> 00:32:11,509
lots of different things there. And and, again,

884
00:32:11,509 --> 00:32:14,089
I wanna get away from this one solution

885
00:32:14,775 --> 00:32:16,075
for everybody's travel because

886
00:32:16,615 --> 00:32:18,134
we're a broad church with lots of different

887
00:32:18,134 --> 00:32:19,494
fans coming from lots of different places and

888
00:32:19,494 --> 00:32:21,335
lots of different behaviors. Some will pick up

889
00:32:21,335 --> 00:32:23,575
families. Some will drop off kids. Some will

890
00:32:23,575 --> 00:32:25,894
go via pubs or whatever on the on

891
00:32:25,894 --> 00:32:27,894
on route. So it's about trying to offer

892
00:32:27,894 --> 00:32:29,440
as many different options to get people out

893
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,279
of their cars as possible. Mhmm. Do you

894
00:32:31,279 --> 00:32:33,140
have a sense of how many people walk?

895
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,160
Our last survey was done pre COVID as

896
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,019
we did a supported travel survey,

897
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:39,920
and we used to do that annually. We

898
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:41,680
we paused last year just because we'll we'll

899
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,085
run it summer instead because,

900
00:32:43,944 --> 00:32:45,865
of this autumn, should I say. We we

901
00:32:45,865 --> 00:32:46,984
want to borrow down to a little bit

902
00:32:46,984 --> 00:32:49,224
more detail about the carbon of that journey,

903
00:32:49,224 --> 00:32:50,984
not just the behavior, but we need a

904
00:32:50,984 --> 00:32:53,325
little bit more detail on each person's behavior.

905
00:32:53,865 --> 00:32:55,304
We are lucky compared to a lot of

906
00:32:55,304 --> 00:32:56,585
clubs in so far as we are

907
00:32:57,384 --> 00:32:58,960
we might be on a slight western edge,

908
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,200
but we are within walking distance of a

909
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,039
lot of the city and a lot of

910
00:33:03,039 --> 00:33:03,700
the heartland.

911
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,480
We're, you know, we're, what, 30 minutes walk

912
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:07,539
from the city center,

913
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:10,400
40 minutes from the mainline train station, pretty

914
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,740
15 to Parson Street railway station.

915
00:33:14,534 --> 00:33:17,534
So, yeah, we'd you know, anecdotally, you can't

916
00:33:17,534 --> 00:33:19,095
go out there, but now you wouldn't necessarily

917
00:33:19,095 --> 00:33:20,454
know which people to park stuff and walk

918
00:33:20,454 --> 00:33:21,734
in, but you'll see, you know, you can

919
00:33:21,734 --> 00:33:23,654
see the floods coming down. Now I did

920
00:33:23,654 --> 00:33:25,494
out myself as something of a football fan

921
00:33:25,494 --> 00:33:26,794
at the start of this podcast.

922
00:33:27,414 --> 00:33:29,380
And as well as being a season ticket

923
00:33:29,380 --> 00:33:32,420
holder at Ashton Gate for the men's Bristol

924
00:33:32,420 --> 00:33:34,420
City team, I'm also a season ticket holder

925
00:33:34,420 --> 00:33:36,660
at the Robins High Performance Centre, the home

926
00:33:36,660 --> 00:33:38,980
of the Bristol City women's team. The Robins

927
00:33:38,980 --> 00:33:42,119
High Performance Centre is also the training facilities

928
00:33:42,625 --> 00:33:45,184
for both the men's and women's teams. And

929
00:33:45,184 --> 00:33:47,345
over the road from that is the Bears

930
00:33:47,345 --> 00:33:50,865
High Performance Center, the training ground for Bristol

931
00:33:50,865 --> 00:33:54,384
Sports rugby team. Both training facilities and Ashton

932
00:33:54,384 --> 00:33:54,884
Gate

933
00:33:55,289 --> 00:33:57,630
are, to some extent, new facilities.

934
00:33:58,009 --> 00:33:59,210
We're lucky in that sense,

935
00:33:59,610 --> 00:34:01,710
again, compared to most clubs because we had

936
00:34:01,850 --> 00:34:04,170
investment in all our facilities. So Ashton Gate

937
00:34:04,170 --> 00:34:05,549
Stadium had the redevelopment

938
00:34:05,850 --> 00:34:07,390
between 2014 and 2016,

939
00:34:08,885 --> 00:34:11,125
Bristol City High Performance Center and the Bears

940
00:34:11,125 --> 00:34:13,224
High Performance Center are all new facilities.

941
00:34:13,684 --> 00:34:14,184
So,

942
00:34:14,965 --> 00:34:17,445
Ashton Gate, as an example, has 750 square

943
00:34:17,445 --> 00:34:19,284
meters worth of solar panels on the Lansdowne

944
00:34:19,284 --> 00:34:22,039
stand roof. We have energy saving light bulbs.

945
00:34:22,039 --> 00:34:23,079
So if we sit in here long enough,

946
00:34:23,079 --> 00:34:24,360
and last time I was doing a podcast

947
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:25,880
in here, the lights turned out on us,

948
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:26,539
for example.

949
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,980
If you go into the bathrooms, they are

950
00:34:30,199 --> 00:34:31,019
low water,

951
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:32,860
low flow taps.

952
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,965
We have a building management system which enables

953
00:34:36,265 --> 00:34:38,425
Ross and the team upstairs and even remotely

954
00:34:38,425 --> 00:34:40,025
when they're at home to realize that if

955
00:34:40,025 --> 00:34:42,664
a room's being heated and the people have

956
00:34:42,664 --> 00:34:44,505
vacated or they've realized that actually it's been

957
00:34:44,505 --> 00:34:46,605
left on, they can remotely control things. So

958
00:34:46,985 --> 00:34:48,900
those things some of those mechanics and the

959
00:34:48,900 --> 00:34:50,500
engineering plan is quite I find it quite

960
00:34:50,500 --> 00:34:51,940
dry and boring personally, but actually makes a

961
00:34:51,940 --> 00:34:53,559
massive difference to your energy use.

962
00:34:54,099 --> 00:34:55,699
But we're not there yet. There's obviously more

963
00:34:55,699 --> 00:34:58,199
we can do. But this side with Robins

964
00:34:58,260 --> 00:35:00,440
and BEAR's high performance sensor, they I mean,

965
00:35:00,820 --> 00:35:02,015
make sure I go the right way around,

966
00:35:02,015 --> 00:35:02,655
but I think,

967
00:35:02,974 --> 00:35:04,035
the Robins doesn't

968
00:35:04,414 --> 00:35:06,095
high performance sensor has no gas. It's a

969
00:35:06,095 --> 00:35:07,155
zero gas facility,

970
00:35:07,535 --> 00:35:09,215
for example. Yeah. So, yeah,

971
00:35:10,175 --> 00:35:11,855
we're we're lucky in that respect. We've Yeah.

972
00:35:11,934 --> 00:35:13,431
Pull far less energy compared to a a

973
00:35:13,431 --> 00:35:13,544
a lot of similar venues. Where do you

974
00:35:13,544 --> 00:35:14,364
think the biggest wins might be? Probably

975
00:35:16,699 --> 00:35:17,199
venues.

976
00:35:17,579 --> 00:35:18,184
Where do you think the biggest wins might

977
00:35:18,184 --> 00:35:18,788
be? Probably 3, energy travel and support behavior.

978
00:35:18,864 --> 00:35:21,900
Energy, I think we've we've touched on there.

979
00:35:21,900 --> 00:35:23,579
We've we've got a fairly low bar, so

980
00:35:23,579 --> 00:35:25,500
that's relatively hard for us to keep going

981
00:35:25,500 --> 00:35:27,099
by hand. But there is more you can

982
00:35:27,099 --> 00:35:27,839
do when technologies

983
00:35:29,775 --> 00:35:31,135
will change and develop. So we've gotta keep

984
00:35:31,135 --> 00:35:32,034
pushing that.

985
00:35:33,534 --> 00:35:34,194
I think,

986
00:35:36,574 --> 00:35:37,074
food,

987
00:35:38,014 --> 00:35:40,255
again, we we can continue to get better

988
00:35:40,255 --> 00:35:41,875
at that. I appreciate you mentioned waste.

989
00:35:43,579 --> 00:35:45,980
We definitely have some some progress to make

990
00:35:45,980 --> 00:35:47,940
on waste. Although, Ashton Gate is a 0

991
00:35:47,940 --> 00:35:49,119
to landfill facility,

992
00:35:49,980 --> 00:35:50,480
there's

993
00:35:50,940 --> 00:35:52,400
more we can do with

994
00:35:52,780 --> 00:35:54,780
rationalizing the journey between what comes in in

995
00:35:54,780 --> 00:35:56,640
terms of what we procure in terms of

996
00:35:58,755 --> 00:36:00,755
packaging or have you and make sure that

997
00:36:00,755 --> 00:36:02,835
the journey to where it goes afterwards is

998
00:36:02,835 --> 00:36:05,074
is lined up. Making progress on that, but

999
00:36:05,074 --> 00:36:06,614
we we we're not there yet.

1000
00:36:07,954 --> 00:36:10,355
And I mentioned fan behavior, and this is

1001
00:36:10,355 --> 00:36:12,275
something we did last over the last couple

1002
00:36:12,275 --> 00:36:13,094
of years with,

1003
00:36:13,599 --> 00:36:14,980
with a Bristol based,

1004
00:36:15,599 --> 00:36:16,820
enterprise called Pledgeable,

1005
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:18,099
is to

1006
00:36:18,639 --> 00:36:19,139
enhance

1007
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,199
the power of the sporting group to encourage

1008
00:36:21,199 --> 00:36:23,619
fan behaving fan behavior beyond

1009
00:36:24,079 --> 00:36:27,380
the the the the footprint of Ashton Gate.

1010
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,625
I'm I'm slightly cautious here because we we

1011
00:36:30,625 --> 00:36:30,864
can't

1012
00:36:31,824 --> 00:36:33,505
it would be remiss of us to say,

1013
00:36:33,505 --> 00:36:36,644
well, supporters, you go behave better elsewhere,

1014
00:36:37,025 --> 00:36:38,545
and we'll just keep doing what we've always

1015
00:36:38,545 --> 00:36:41,045
done here. So the onus is on

1016
00:36:41,769 --> 00:36:44,170
us to look after our own our own

1017
00:36:44,170 --> 00:36:44,909
our own things,

1018
00:36:45,210 --> 00:36:45,710
but

1019
00:36:46,089 --> 00:36:47,849
it also be wrong to ignore the fact

1020
00:36:47,849 --> 00:36:49,469
that sport has a massive

1021
00:36:50,409 --> 00:36:50,909
reach.

1022
00:36:51,449 --> 00:36:51,949
And

1023
00:36:52,650 --> 00:36:54,589
it also has a massive reach to some

1024
00:36:55,394 --> 00:36:57,255
hard to hard to reach

1025
00:36:57,715 --> 00:37:00,755
sectors in society who don't necessarily engage with

1026
00:37:00,755 --> 00:37:02,914
the climate change message. Mhmm. And they won't

1027
00:37:02,914 --> 00:37:05,635
necessarily listen to podcasts that talk about green

1028
00:37:05,635 --> 00:37:06,775
stuff. They won't necessarily

1029
00:37:07,554 --> 00:37:09,914
read newspapers who champion this stuff. They may

1030
00:37:10,034 --> 00:37:12,210
them and their social groups may not particularly

1031
00:37:12,210 --> 00:37:13,750
think or care about this stuff.

1032
00:37:14,289 --> 00:37:15,889
But we can communicate with them.

1033
00:37:16,530 --> 00:37:17,030
And

1034
00:37:18,369 --> 00:37:19,829
I think the Bristol's

1035
00:37:20,210 --> 00:37:21,969
Pledge of Author and anybody who's not come

1036
00:37:21,969 --> 00:37:23,585
across it is a it's just a bit

1037
00:37:23,585 --> 00:37:25,664
of fun really on online where you we

1038
00:37:25,664 --> 00:37:27,184
go out to fund the supporters and ask

1039
00:37:27,184 --> 00:37:29,344
them to make environmental pledges pinned to a

1040
00:37:29,344 --> 00:37:31,424
game. They select what they're gonna change that

1041
00:37:31,424 --> 00:37:32,864
week or that month, that year, and it

1042
00:37:32,864 --> 00:37:34,464
will calculate the carbon saved and they'll look

1043
00:37:34,545 --> 00:37:37,390
it'll actually then calculate it by supporter base.

1044
00:37:37,450 --> 00:37:39,130
And it just gives a little league table.

1045
00:37:39,130 --> 00:37:41,150
And last year, Bristol City won the inaugural

1046
00:37:41,369 --> 00:37:43,390
Pledgeful League. Bristol City fans

1047
00:37:43,769 --> 00:37:46,110
pled made more pledges to save more carbon

1048
00:37:46,410 --> 00:37:47,849
than any other club by a long way.

1049
00:37:47,849 --> 00:37:50,090
Bristol City women's fan ditto way better than

1050
00:37:50,090 --> 00:37:51,625
any other women's club, and Bristol Bears are

1051
00:37:51,625 --> 00:37:53,704
the only professional club to have engaged on

1052
00:37:53,704 --> 00:37:55,545
on a rugby sense. So to be the

1053
00:37:55,545 --> 00:37:58,025
1st professional club to partner with Pledgeable was

1054
00:37:58,025 --> 00:37:59,785
great. To win the inaugural Pledgeable league was

1055
00:37:59,785 --> 00:38:02,425
great, but the real thing is that those

1056
00:38:02,425 --> 00:38:02,925
pledges

1057
00:38:03,785 --> 00:38:05,670
count, I think the sum total is about

1058
00:38:05,670 --> 00:38:06,170
638,000

1059
00:38:06,710 --> 00:38:08,409
kilograms of carbon saved,

1060
00:38:08,869 --> 00:38:10,550
and that goes to show the potential of

1061
00:38:10,550 --> 00:38:12,230
us being able to communicate and speak with

1062
00:38:12,230 --> 00:38:14,069
such a wide fan base. Mhmm.

1063
00:38:14,469 --> 00:38:15,510
And we don't wanna do that in a

1064
00:38:15,510 --> 00:38:17,510
preachy way. We've gotta make sure it's it's

1065
00:38:17,510 --> 00:38:18,409
fun and engaging.

1066
00:38:19,565 --> 00:38:22,144
Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental

1067
00:38:22,444 --> 00:38:25,184
movement whose stated aim is using nonviolent

1068
00:38:25,484 --> 00:38:26,704
civil disobedience

1069
00:38:27,404 --> 00:38:29,585
to compel governments into action

1070
00:38:29,885 --> 00:38:32,109
to try and to avoid tipping points in

1071
00:38:32,109 --> 00:38:32,849
the climate

1072
00:38:33,309 --> 00:38:34,530
system in terms of biodiversity

1073
00:38:34,989 --> 00:38:38,050
loss and the risk of social and ecological

1074
00:38:38,349 --> 00:38:38,849
collapse.

1075
00:38:39,469 --> 00:38:41,489
It also has a cricket club.

1076
00:38:41,949 --> 00:38:43,409
My name is Zena Cooper.

1077
00:38:43,710 --> 00:38:47,114
I'm one of the Bristol Dodo's Cricket Club.

1078
00:38:47,434 --> 00:38:51,034
Our original name was the Extinction Rebellion Cricket

1079
00:38:51,034 --> 00:38:53,375
Club, which formed in, 2019.

1080
00:38:53,835 --> 00:38:55,914
Why the change of name? The club were

1081
00:38:55,914 --> 00:38:56,815
keen to

1082
00:38:57,275 --> 00:38:59,295
give a little bit of distance between

1083
00:38:59,679 --> 00:39:01,699
the cricket club and the rebellion

1084
00:39:02,079 --> 00:39:02,579
because

1085
00:39:03,199 --> 00:39:05,539
when we did the series of talks,

1086
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,320
I think at that stage, a lot of

1087
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,440
the general public have kind of soured in

1088
00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:11,925
their

1089
00:39:12,565 --> 00:39:16,164
taste for, rebellion. It all started happy jolly.

1090
00:39:16,164 --> 00:39:18,244
Everybody thought it was something exciting, and then

1091
00:39:18,244 --> 00:39:20,664
it was tarnished by the press. So it

1092
00:39:20,804 --> 00:39:22,724
became a name that we didn't really need

1093
00:39:22,724 --> 00:39:23,224
anymore.

1094
00:39:23,605 --> 00:39:24,105
Okay.

1095
00:39:24,849 --> 00:39:27,329
Okay. But it brought us huge amounts of

1096
00:39:27,329 --> 00:39:27,829
publicity

1097
00:39:28,130 --> 00:39:30,130
in the first, you know, the 1st year

1098
00:39:30,130 --> 00:39:30,949
that we existed.

1099
00:39:32,130 --> 00:39:34,769
You know, everybody everybody loves us. People still

1100
00:39:34,769 --> 00:39:35,429
love us.

1101
00:39:35,809 --> 00:39:37,730
That's a shame to have to kinda ditch

1102
00:39:37,730 --> 00:39:40,125
the name. We still exist. We're still all

1103
00:39:40,125 --> 00:39:42,204
the same. But yeah. So the Bristol Dodo

1104
00:39:42,204 --> 00:39:44,125
is just gonna be what we work under

1105
00:39:44,125 --> 00:39:44,625
for

1106
00:39:45,244 --> 00:39:48,605
community stuff, like friendly games and, you know,

1107
00:39:48,605 --> 00:39:49,905
home ground stuff.

1108
00:39:50,765 --> 00:39:53,005
And when we take the kit out onto

1109
00:39:53,005 --> 00:39:54,385
the streets for rebellions,

1110
00:39:54,829 --> 00:39:56,610
which is was our original purpose,

1111
00:39:57,389 --> 00:40:00,349
then we'll still be the extinction rebellion cricket

1112
00:40:00,349 --> 00:40:02,510
club. It will still always be there. I

1113
00:40:02,510 --> 00:40:04,929
mean, you can't be upset with,

1114
00:40:05,550 --> 00:40:06,210
a silly,

1115
00:40:06,590 --> 00:40:07,889
fluffy, plump

1116
00:40:08,269 --> 00:40:08,769
bird.

1117
00:40:10,105 --> 00:40:12,684
A dodo is just a totally ridiculous animal.

1118
00:40:12,985 --> 00:40:15,144
Xena and the dodos organized a series of

1119
00:40:15,144 --> 00:40:15,644
talks

1120
00:40:16,025 --> 00:40:18,184
at cricket clubs. They were going to be

1121
00:40:18,184 --> 00:40:19,485
delivered back in 2020.

1122
00:40:20,505 --> 00:40:23,019
So after the rebellion, we got so much

1123
00:40:23,019 --> 00:40:25,119
amazing press. We got some

1124
00:40:25,420 --> 00:40:28,139
interest from the Wisdom. They featured us in

1125
00:40:28,139 --> 00:40:29,679
the the 2019.

1126
00:40:30,460 --> 00:40:31,599
Oh, sorry. The 2019

1127
00:40:32,059 --> 00:40:32,559
20

1128
00:40:33,179 --> 00:40:33,679
edition.

1129
00:40:34,699 --> 00:40:36,625
We had good links with them, and then

1130
00:40:36,625 --> 00:40:38,405
we also got into the 2021

1131
00:40:38,704 --> 00:40:39,204
edition.

1132
00:40:40,065 --> 00:40:43,025
Despite Xena's firm and passionate belief that everybody

1133
00:40:43,025 --> 00:40:45,025
loves cricket, I do know that some of

1134
00:40:45,025 --> 00:40:47,105
you might not know everything there is to

1135
00:40:47,105 --> 00:40:49,605
know about it. So just a quick aside,

1136
00:40:49,985 --> 00:40:51,925
the Wisden Cricketers' Almanac

1137
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,460
is something of the bible of cricket.

1138
00:40:54,839 --> 00:40:57,719
It's a cricket reference book that's published every

1139
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:00,219
year. The Time to Declare series was started

1140
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:03,239
because we had made quite a lot of

1141
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:03,739
links

1142
00:41:04,039 --> 00:41:06,925
with a gentleman who wrote the Hits for

1143
00:41:06,925 --> 00:41:07,585
6 Report.

1144
00:41:08,605 --> 00:41:10,764
He used to work at Lourdes and he

1145
00:41:10,764 --> 00:41:11,744
offered to,

1146
00:41:13,484 --> 00:41:13,984
to

1147
00:41:14,445 --> 00:41:16,445
come and give a talk for us for

1148
00:41:16,445 --> 00:41:16,945
free,

1149
00:41:17,965 --> 00:41:19,824
to kind of link up and collaborate.

1150
00:41:20,660 --> 00:41:22,660
So Russell Seymour did the hit for 6

1151
00:41:22,660 --> 00:41:24,119
report back in

1152
00:41:24,420 --> 00:41:24,920
2019.

1153
00:41:26,260 --> 00:41:29,219
Russell Seymour's hit for 6 report brings together

1154
00:41:29,219 --> 00:41:32,519
the expertise of climate scientists with the science

1155
00:41:32,755 --> 00:41:33,815
of sports physiology

1156
00:41:34,594 --> 00:41:37,554
to study and explore the current and future

1157
00:41:37,554 --> 00:41:38,054
impacts

1158
00:41:38,434 --> 00:41:39,655
of our changing climate.

1159
00:41:40,434 --> 00:41:43,715
Its executive summary begins, cricket is already feeling

1160
00:41:43,715 --> 00:41:45,860
the effects of a planet that's heating

1161
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:48,880
up. Scientific studies have shown the fingerprints of

1162
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:51,599
climate change on the heat wave that in

1163
00:41:51,599 --> 00:41:52,099
2017,

1164
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:52,900
2018

1165
00:41:53,519 --> 00:41:55,619
impacted youth matches in Australia.

1166
00:41:56,079 --> 00:41:58,500
Storm Desmond in 2015, 16

1167
00:41:58,805 --> 00:42:00,184
that washed away Appleby

1168
00:42:00,565 --> 00:42:02,425
and Eden Cricket Club in Cumbria.

1169
00:42:02,885 --> 00:42:05,845
And the drought that played Cape Town in

1170
00:42:05,845 --> 00:42:06,505
the 2017,

1171
00:42:06,965 --> 00:42:07,465
2018

1172
00:42:08,164 --> 00:42:11,545
Indian Cricket Tour of South Africa. We found

1173
00:42:11,690 --> 00:42:13,530
that there were loads of other speakers who

1174
00:42:13,530 --> 00:42:16,430
wanted to talk about these issues as well.

1175
00:42:17,450 --> 00:42:18,430
So we collaborated

1176
00:42:18,730 --> 00:42:21,070
with Andrew Sims from the Rapid Transition

1177
00:42:21,369 --> 00:42:21,869
Alliance.

1178
00:42:22,730 --> 00:42:23,230
He,

1179
00:42:23,930 --> 00:42:25,309
had done a report

1180
00:42:25,925 --> 00:42:27,704
called the Sweat Not Oil report.

1181
00:42:28,565 --> 00:42:30,505
It's basically started to uncover

1182
00:42:31,445 --> 00:42:32,585
how advertising

1183
00:42:33,204 --> 00:42:34,025
in sport

1184
00:42:34,724 --> 00:42:35,864
is part of,

1185
00:42:36,885 --> 00:42:37,385
greenwashing.

1186
00:42:37,684 --> 00:42:39,784
We call it greenwash now. Green

1187
00:42:40,089 --> 00:42:43,309
washing campaigns for, you know, large scale polluters

1188
00:42:43,690 --> 00:42:44,190
or

1189
00:42:44,730 --> 00:42:45,710
for companies

1190
00:42:46,010 --> 00:42:47,929
that don't necessarily have the,

1191
00:42:49,369 --> 00:42:50,989
the the best reputations

1192
00:42:51,929 --> 00:42:52,429
environmentally.

1193
00:42:53,675 --> 00:42:54,655
They might sponsor,

1194
00:42:54,954 --> 00:42:56,014
you know, cycling

1195
00:42:56,315 --> 00:42:56,815
or,

1196
00:42:57,835 --> 00:43:00,315
football or, you know, to because people but

1197
00:43:00,315 --> 00:43:01,855
sport is a very emotional

1198
00:43:02,474 --> 00:43:04,795
thing. It's part of our culture. It's part

1199
00:43:04,795 --> 00:43:07,289
of our history. It's part of the thing

1200
00:43:07,289 --> 00:43:09,789
that people love about our nation.

1201
00:43:10,489 --> 00:43:12,670
It gives people a huge amount of pride,

1202
00:43:14,489 --> 00:43:14,989
individually

1203
00:43:15,690 --> 00:43:17,849
and as a country. You know, people run

1204
00:43:17,849 --> 00:43:19,930
marathons and people do all kinds of things.

1205
00:43:19,930 --> 00:43:21,070
Like, sport is

1206
00:43:22,135 --> 00:43:22,954
how humans

1207
00:43:23,655 --> 00:43:24,474
better themselves

1208
00:43:25,175 --> 00:43:28,295
on individual scales and on global scales as

1209
00:43:28,295 --> 00:43:30,535
well. So there's a massive amount of pride

1210
00:43:30,535 --> 00:43:31,035
there.

1211
00:43:31,335 --> 00:43:32,715
And, you know, the

1212
00:43:33,974 --> 00:43:34,954
large scale,

1213
00:43:35,655 --> 00:43:37,195
companies and polluters,

1214
00:43:37,750 --> 00:43:38,250
Obviously,

1215
00:43:38,869 --> 00:43:39,769
they capitalize

1216
00:43:40,230 --> 00:43:43,190
on on that. So the sweatlaw oil report

1217
00:43:43,190 --> 00:43:44,890
started to uncover how

1218
00:43:45,510 --> 00:43:47,849
deeply seeded these ideas

1219
00:43:48,150 --> 00:43:48,650
are

1220
00:43:49,190 --> 00:43:49,605
and

1221
00:43:50,085 --> 00:43:51,925
how they're actually when you really look at

1222
00:43:51,925 --> 00:43:53,304
it, quite incongruous.

1223
00:43:53,925 --> 00:43:56,264
How it's it's actually quite

1224
00:43:59,125 --> 00:44:01,784
devastating for sport. So you've got

1225
00:44:02,909 --> 00:44:03,409
polluters.

1226
00:44:03,789 --> 00:44:05,569
They actually, you know, cause

1227
00:44:06,510 --> 00:44:08,989
not pollution just across the globe, it is

1228
00:44:08,989 --> 00:44:10,929
in in specific areas. So

1229
00:44:11,230 --> 00:44:13,710
people can't breathe, you know. There was a

1230
00:44:13,710 --> 00:44:16,130
case in India where Sri Lanka

1231
00:44:16,625 --> 00:44:20,005
versus India, the the pollution was so bad

1232
00:44:20,784 --> 00:44:23,684
that the Sri Lankans were wearing masks

1233
00:44:24,304 --> 00:44:26,864
on the pitch. They they didn't want to

1234
00:44:26,864 --> 00:44:29,025
to play and the the game, I think,

1235
00:44:29,025 --> 00:44:29,844
got cancelled

1236
00:44:30,625 --> 00:44:31,525
if I'm not mistaken.

1237
00:44:32,300 --> 00:44:34,219
So, yeah, these things are really, really having

1238
00:44:34,219 --> 00:44:35,199
a massive effect.

1239
00:44:35,900 --> 00:44:36,960
People are starting

1240
00:44:37,260 --> 00:44:39,179
to to join the dots now. People are

1241
00:44:39,179 --> 00:44:40,400
starting to see,

1242
00:44:42,059 --> 00:44:43,679
how these issues are connected.

1243
00:44:44,059 --> 00:44:46,755
Is climate change affecting sport? But what about

1244
00:44:46,755 --> 00:44:48,375
sports affecting climate change?

1245
00:44:49,074 --> 00:44:49,974
Yeah. Absolutely.

1246
00:44:50,675 --> 00:44:52,214
It's exactly that. So,

1247
00:44:52,835 --> 00:44:55,954
the way the sports world is structured, it's,

1248
00:44:55,954 --> 00:44:58,034
you know, it's based on like, we've had

1249
00:44:58,034 --> 00:45:00,769
it for how many years now that sponsors

1250
00:45:00,829 --> 00:45:02,849
are basically the reasons we feel

1251
00:45:03,390 --> 00:45:05,309
like sponsors are the reasons we can have

1252
00:45:05,309 --> 00:45:05,809
sport.

1253
00:45:07,070 --> 00:45:09,070
You know, we used to have the Benson

1254
00:45:09,070 --> 00:45:11,470
and Hedges cup. We used to have, like,

1255
00:45:11,470 --> 00:45:11,985
you know,

1256
00:45:12,545 --> 00:45:13,045
tobacco

1257
00:45:13,505 --> 00:45:14,724
companies sponsoring,

1258
00:45:16,224 --> 00:45:16,724
motorsports

1259
00:45:17,025 --> 00:45:19,585
and everything. You know? I mean, those little

1260
00:45:19,585 --> 00:45:22,005
playing cards that you'd get with all footballers

1261
00:45:22,224 --> 00:45:25,105
and people would collect them in cigarette packets

1262
00:45:25,105 --> 00:45:27,150
and all that kind of stuff. But, you

1263
00:45:27,150 --> 00:45:28,210
know, it's embedded

1264
00:45:28,589 --> 00:45:30,989
so deeply in our culture that you must

1265
00:45:30,989 --> 00:45:33,710
have sponsorship in order to for sport to

1266
00:45:33,710 --> 00:45:34,210
exist.

1267
00:45:35,469 --> 00:45:37,650
Well, in essence, that's only one

1268
00:45:38,429 --> 00:45:40,130
that's only one way of

1269
00:45:41,065 --> 00:45:43,405
a funding sport, really, in essence.

1270
00:45:44,824 --> 00:45:45,324
And

1271
00:45:46,344 --> 00:45:48,125
sport can choose

1272
00:45:48,505 --> 00:45:49,885
to take money from

1273
00:45:50,184 --> 00:45:51,644
from other organizations

1274
00:45:51,945 --> 00:45:54,125
that actually or it can also, you know,

1275
00:45:54,710 --> 00:45:55,929
use its influence

1276
00:45:56,389 --> 00:45:58,569
to say actually we expect better.

1277
00:45:58,949 --> 00:46:01,589
But actually, you know, I mean, everybody has

1278
00:46:01,589 --> 00:46:03,349
to put their hands up in essence that

1279
00:46:03,349 --> 00:46:04,889
sport is a global

1280
00:46:05,589 --> 00:46:07,529
machine. It's part of a global,

1281
00:46:09,255 --> 00:46:10,635
you know, culture.

1282
00:46:11,414 --> 00:46:11,914
And

1283
00:46:12,375 --> 00:46:12,875
we

1284
00:46:13,255 --> 00:46:15,574
want to see international players. We want to

1285
00:46:15,574 --> 00:46:16,635
see the highest,

1286
00:46:17,014 --> 00:46:18,154
you know, performers,

1287
00:46:19,014 --> 00:46:19,994
at all levels.

1288
00:46:20,534 --> 00:46:23,230
And, yes, players get flown all over the

1289
00:46:23,269 --> 00:46:25,269
around the world and all of their teams

1290
00:46:25,269 --> 00:46:26,090
and etcetera.

1291
00:46:27,110 --> 00:46:29,349
I think people started to learn more about

1292
00:46:29,349 --> 00:46:31,190
that when it was COVID. You could see

1293
00:46:31,190 --> 00:46:33,050
that the COVID bubbles and

1294
00:46:33,349 --> 00:46:36,090
how many people actually really needed to be

1295
00:46:36,945 --> 00:46:37,844
in that country

1296
00:46:38,545 --> 00:46:40,785
to to have sport and for it to

1297
00:46:40,785 --> 00:46:43,605
to happen. And, obviously, fans moving around. But

1298
00:46:44,465 --> 00:46:46,644
it's very true. Yeah. Sport makes a massive

1299
00:46:46,785 --> 00:46:48,005
impact on

1300
00:46:48,305 --> 00:46:50,405
the global scale. But

1301
00:46:50,799 --> 00:46:52,659
is it as big as

1302
00:46:53,199 --> 00:46:53,699
governments

1303
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:55,619
and oil companies?

1304
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,239
Is it as big as all these other

1305
00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:00,260
things? Like, I suppose in essence,

1306
00:47:01,279 --> 00:47:03,434
everyone has to put their house in order,

1307
00:47:03,675 --> 00:47:06,094
You know? And sport has an opportunity

1308
00:47:06,474 --> 00:47:07,614
to reflect

1309
00:47:07,994 --> 00:47:08,974
and to

1310
00:47:09,434 --> 00:47:11,135
look at how

1311
00:47:12,074 --> 00:47:13,135
we can still

1312
00:47:14,074 --> 00:47:16,880
have all the positive things of, you know,

1313
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:18,500
having sport on a global stage.

1314
00:47:19,039 --> 00:47:19,940
But then also,

1315
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:22,960
how we do that sustainably. People talk about

1316
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:23,460
sustainability

1317
00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:25,460
and, you know, it's not impossible.

1318
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:29,059
We have so many solutions to these problems.

1319
00:47:29,614 --> 00:47:31,074
We just have to

1320
00:47:31,694 --> 00:47:33,074
be brave enough to actually

1321
00:47:33,614 --> 00:47:35,534
start looking at it and want to find

1322
00:47:35,534 --> 00:47:37,635
solutions. Because the solutions are there.

1323
00:47:38,014 --> 00:47:40,335
Yes. It's gonna be challenging. Yes. It's going

1324
00:47:40,335 --> 00:47:41,315
to be different.

1325
00:47:41,694 --> 00:47:43,855
It's gonna feel like, you know, a big

1326
00:47:43,855 --> 00:47:46,219
change and everyone hates change. But in essence,

1327
00:47:46,219 --> 00:47:47,119
you know,

1328
00:47:47,980 --> 00:47:50,400
I think when it comes to change, people

1329
00:47:51,179 --> 00:47:52,239
always see it as

1330
00:47:52,699 --> 00:47:54,960
a negative thing. But

1331
00:47:55,579 --> 00:47:56,799
if you

1332
00:47:57,434 --> 00:47:57,934
are

1333
00:47:58,315 --> 00:47:59,215
part of

1334
00:47:59,994 --> 00:48:02,715
making that change happen, if you are part

1335
00:48:02,715 --> 00:48:04,335
of the narrative to,

1336
00:48:04,875 --> 00:48:05,454
you know,

1337
00:48:06,155 --> 00:48:06,655
enact

1338
00:48:06,954 --> 00:48:07,454
change,

1339
00:48:09,114 --> 00:48:10,494
then you feel more

1340
00:48:10,900 --> 00:48:13,699
embedded in the positive vision of what it

1341
00:48:13,699 --> 00:48:14,920
can actually be.

1342
00:48:15,300 --> 00:48:17,619
You know, having change thrust upon us is,

1343
00:48:18,579 --> 00:48:20,119
it makes us feel like

1344
00:48:20,980 --> 00:48:22,519
we're at the whims of,

1345
00:48:23,094 --> 00:48:25,494
you know, time and history. And there's nothing

1346
00:48:25,494 --> 00:48:26,715
we can do. We're just

1347
00:48:27,094 --> 00:48:27,594
passive

1348
00:48:28,535 --> 00:48:30,055
pawns or players or, you know

1349
00:48:30,855 --> 00:48:32,295
and we just have to take what we

1350
00:48:32,295 --> 00:48:34,535
get. But actually, people forget that,

1351
00:48:35,094 --> 00:48:35,594
we

1352
00:48:36,295 --> 00:48:36,795
can

1353
00:48:37,539 --> 00:48:40,659
enact changes. And it's not just recycling. It's,

1354
00:48:40,659 --> 00:48:42,679
you know, big big things. You can

1355
00:48:43,059 --> 00:48:45,699
change where you bank or you can change

1356
00:48:45,699 --> 00:48:47,000
your insurance company.

1357
00:48:47,460 --> 00:48:48,519
I think sport,

1358
00:48:48,900 --> 00:48:50,119
if it acts quickly,

1359
00:48:51,219 --> 00:48:51,960
it can

1360
00:48:53,355 --> 00:48:55,534
connect back to its roots where

1361
00:48:56,315 --> 00:48:57,855
the ethics of sport.

1362
00:48:58,394 --> 00:49:01,054
Sports always had a history of

1363
00:49:01,434 --> 00:49:03,614
having a voice for social

1364
00:49:03,914 --> 00:49:04,414
issues.

1365
00:49:05,114 --> 00:49:07,114
I mean, for cricket, you look back to

1366
00:49:07,114 --> 00:49:10,070
the seventies, you look at the the Windrush

1367
00:49:10,210 --> 00:49:12,930
generation. So our last talk was about,

1368
00:49:13,329 --> 00:49:13,829
the

1369
00:49:14,450 --> 00:49:16,469
links between the history of empire

1370
00:49:16,930 --> 00:49:17,430
and,

1371
00:49:19,090 --> 00:49:20,070
history of cricket,

1372
00:49:20,530 --> 00:49:22,150
how that's linked to

1373
00:49:22,574 --> 00:49:24,734
racism in the game we see today, and

1374
00:49:24,734 --> 00:49:25,875
also how

1375
00:49:26,574 --> 00:49:28,894
the history of cricket and empire basically is

1376
00:49:28,894 --> 00:49:30,114
the reason we have

1377
00:49:31,614 --> 00:49:32,195
a colonial

1378
00:49:32,974 --> 00:49:35,534
a post colonial world. The reason we are

1379
00:49:35,534 --> 00:49:36,034
seeing

1380
00:49:36,494 --> 00:49:38,760
the climate declining in climate,

1381
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:39,739
stability

1382
00:49:40,039 --> 00:49:42,059
declining in such a rapid way.

1383
00:49:42,599 --> 00:49:44,219
And our speaker talked about

1384
00:49:44,519 --> 00:49:48,059
the Blackwash series in the seventies. How basically

1385
00:49:48,119 --> 00:49:51,079
the West Indian team came over to the

1386
00:49:51,079 --> 00:49:51,579
homeland

1387
00:49:52,119 --> 00:49:52,619
and

1388
00:49:53,605 --> 00:49:54,344
and obliterated

1389
00:49:54,724 --> 00:49:56,184
the the home team.

1390
00:49:56,885 --> 00:49:57,385
And

1391
00:49:58,085 --> 00:50:00,405
at that time, there was a lot of

1392
00:50:00,405 --> 00:50:00,905
racism,

1393
00:50:01,285 --> 00:50:02,265
outward outward

1394
00:50:02,724 --> 00:50:05,125
racism, you know, the signs in the streets,

1395
00:50:05,125 --> 00:50:07,765
no blacks, no no Irish, no dogs, and

1396
00:50:07,765 --> 00:50:09,059
all that kind of stuff

1397
00:50:09,460 --> 00:50:11,940
was still rampant in the population. So that

1398
00:50:12,099 --> 00:50:13,640
for that team to come

1399
00:50:14,180 --> 00:50:14,840
and fill,

1400
00:50:16,340 --> 00:50:19,140
a black community with pride, you know, in

1401
00:50:19,140 --> 00:50:20,820
the Mexico Olympics, the,

1402
00:50:21,619 --> 00:50:23,640
the black power, you know, movement,

1403
00:50:24,375 --> 00:50:25,994
all kinds of things like that.

1404
00:50:26,454 --> 00:50:29,335
So, yes, sport can is part of the

1405
00:50:29,335 --> 00:50:31,974
problem, no doubt. But when you are part

1406
00:50:31,974 --> 00:50:32,635
of the problem,

1407
00:50:33,094 --> 00:50:34,315
you can also,

1408
00:50:34,614 --> 00:50:36,954
you know, it's time to reflect honestly

1409
00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:37,820
and,

1410
00:50:38,599 --> 00:50:40,440
be part of the solution. And people could

1411
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:42,380
do that. We have a very small window,

1412
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,160
but if anybody is going to do it,

1413
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:47,000
I think cricket has to be one of

1414
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:49,000
the, one of the main sports to be

1415
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:50,920
leading the way. Sadly, we're a little bit

1416
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:53,434
behind football. Football Football is already on the

1417
00:50:53,434 --> 00:50:55,614
front foot, and I'm really annoyed.

1418
00:50:57,114 --> 00:50:59,434
Even cricket. Cricket is starting to find a

1419
00:50:59,434 --> 00:51:00,255
voice now.

1420
00:51:01,594 --> 00:51:03,534
So the Australian Cricket Club,

1421
00:51:04,155 --> 00:51:07,489
the the men's team, the captain Pat Cummins,

1422
00:51:07,789 --> 00:51:10,829
he is started an organization to to try

1423
00:51:10,829 --> 00:51:13,489
and raise awareness for cricket and climate change.

1424
00:51:14,190 --> 00:51:16,110
He's been doing that the past year. I

1425
00:51:16,110 --> 00:51:18,030
mean, it's really annoying that, like, you know,

1426
00:51:18,030 --> 00:51:20,724
the home of cricket is so, like, they're

1427
00:51:20,724 --> 00:51:21,464
just so

1428
00:51:21,764 --> 00:51:23,764
slow. Like, how can we let the Aussies

1429
00:51:23,764 --> 00:51:25,764
be winning this one? I mean, it's like,

1430
00:51:25,764 --> 00:51:28,164
come on. I mean, I thought as soon

1431
00:51:28,164 --> 00:51:31,125
as we said the Aussies are winning, that

1432
00:51:31,125 --> 00:51:33,764
people would start, you know, piling in to

1433
00:51:33,764 --> 00:51:36,090
want to solve this problem because, you know.

1434
00:51:36,489 --> 00:51:38,650
But it is. It's a really, really slow

1435
00:51:38,650 --> 00:51:39,789
process. Cricketers

1436
00:51:41,450 --> 00:51:42,250
are very much

1437
00:51:43,769 --> 00:51:46,329
yeah. People just want to go and play

1438
00:51:46,329 --> 00:51:48,170
cricket, or they wanna sit and watch it.

1439
00:51:48,170 --> 00:51:50,324
They don't wanna have to worry about all

1440
00:51:50,324 --> 00:51:52,025
these things that are happening,

1441
00:51:52,405 --> 00:51:52,905
really.

1442
00:51:54,085 --> 00:51:54,824
But sadly,

1443
00:51:55,445 --> 00:51:56,664
we don't live

1444
00:51:57,925 --> 00:51:58,425
in

1445
00:51:58,804 --> 00:52:02,105
that luxury anymore. We don't have that luxury

1446
00:52:02,724 --> 00:52:03,224
of

1447
00:52:03,730 --> 00:52:05,809
being able to put this to one side

1448
00:52:05,809 --> 00:52:07,190
any longer, sadly.

1449
00:52:07,570 --> 00:52:10,050
What is it that football's doing that you're

1450
00:52:10,050 --> 00:52:11,110
impressed with then?

1451
00:52:11,410 --> 00:52:12,949
They did a net zero game,

1452
00:52:13,650 --> 00:52:16,289
which obviously, you know, it was probably a

1453
00:52:16,289 --> 00:52:16,789
publicity

1454
00:52:17,170 --> 00:52:17,670
stunt.

1455
00:52:18,335 --> 00:52:20,255
But, there was a you know, it was,

1456
00:52:20,574 --> 00:52:23,234
I think Liverpool. It was a really big

1457
00:52:23,534 --> 00:52:24,755
teams and

1458
00:52:26,255 --> 00:52:27,074
that was

1459
00:52:28,014 --> 00:52:29,554
talked about on the BBC.

1460
00:52:29,934 --> 00:52:32,194
It was talked about on, you know,

1461
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:34,019
these national radio.

1462
00:52:35,199 --> 00:52:37,760
And, I mean, forest green rovers. Forest green

1463
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:39,299
rovers have been just

1464
00:52:39,599 --> 00:52:41,460
well established for a considerable

1465
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:44,000
time. Just a quick aside that you can

1466
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:45,299
find an article entitled

1467
00:52:45,795 --> 00:52:47,815
getting physical with the climate crisis

1468
00:52:48,114 --> 00:52:50,534
by James Dacey on the physics world website,

1469
00:52:50,594 --> 00:52:52,855
physics world dot com. It looks at sustainable

1470
00:52:52,994 --> 00:52:55,875
infrastructures and initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint

1471
00:52:55,875 --> 00:52:56,534
of buildings,

1472
00:52:56,835 --> 00:52:57,335
including

1473
00:52:57,739 --> 00:53:00,299
Forrest Green's wooden stadium. Forrest Green is a

1474
00:53:00,299 --> 00:53:02,539
football club not too far from Bristol, and

1475
00:53:02,539 --> 00:53:03,280
it's owned

1476
00:53:03,659 --> 00:53:05,819
by a man called Dale Vince. You know,

1477
00:53:05,819 --> 00:53:07,039
he's part of ecotricity.

1478
00:53:07,420 --> 00:53:09,819
He's part of so he's been just doing

1479
00:53:09,819 --> 00:53:12,344
that for however long. And now things are

1480
00:53:12,344 --> 00:53:14,184
changing. Everybody's kind of going to him to

1481
00:53:14,184 --> 00:53:15,485
say, what can we do?

1482
00:53:16,585 --> 00:53:18,684
So they've been leading the way, I suppose.

1483
00:53:18,824 --> 00:53:20,605
And actually, we'd really like

1484
00:53:21,065 --> 00:53:23,224
I think Gloucestershire have said that they want

1485
00:53:23,224 --> 00:53:24,744
to be the cricket club that leads the

1486
00:53:24,744 --> 00:53:25,244
way.

1487
00:53:25,619 --> 00:53:26,900
The equivalent of the,

1488
00:53:27,460 --> 00:53:29,319
Forest Green Rovers in,

1489
00:53:30,420 --> 00:53:31,480
the cricket world.

1490
00:53:32,099 --> 00:53:33,719
So there's one club who,

1491
00:53:34,259 --> 00:53:35,799
they changed their kit,

1492
00:53:36,420 --> 00:53:39,219
but on the on each arm, they had

1493
00:53:39,219 --> 00:53:40,934
the the heat stripes.

1494
00:53:41,234 --> 00:53:42,994
So as a talking point, so people would

1495
00:53:42,994 --> 00:53:45,315
be like, oh, that's a weird looking like,

1496
00:53:45,315 --> 00:53:48,194
people don't normally have those colors on their

1497
00:53:48,194 --> 00:53:49,655
kit. It's not

1498
00:53:50,194 --> 00:53:52,434
in line with their actual kit colors, but

1499
00:53:52,434 --> 00:53:54,614
the arms have got these stripes on it.

1500
00:53:55,230 --> 00:53:55,730
And,

1501
00:53:56,590 --> 00:53:58,429
so those are the heat stripes that tell

1502
00:53:58,429 --> 00:54:00,690
you that how the the

1503
00:54:01,309 --> 00:54:02,429
England has,

1504
00:54:03,389 --> 00:54:05,469
the temperatures have risen in the past century

1505
00:54:05,469 --> 00:54:07,409
or 2 centuries or something like that.

1506
00:54:08,804 --> 00:54:10,484
And, you know, so they are they are

1507
00:54:10,484 --> 00:54:11,625
doing these things.

1508
00:54:12,565 --> 00:54:16,105
Cricket, I don't know what cricket has done.

1509
00:54:16,565 --> 00:54:17,224
So lords

1510
00:54:18,085 --> 00:54:19,864
will say that they've done enough.

1511
00:54:20,244 --> 00:54:21,065
They have,

1512
00:54:23,010 --> 00:54:24,869
you know, done good recycling.

1513
00:54:25,489 --> 00:54:25,989
They've,

1514
00:54:26,769 --> 00:54:27,909
they're using completely

1515
00:54:28,210 --> 00:54:28,710
solar.

1516
00:54:29,090 --> 00:54:31,989
They've got, like, green walls and stuff, but

1517
00:54:32,530 --> 00:54:35,329
they're also sponsored by JP Morgan. They weren't

1518
00:54:36,264 --> 00:54:37,804
still they're still, you know,

1519
00:54:38,264 --> 00:54:40,284
one of the biggest banks that's

1520
00:54:40,905 --> 00:54:43,144
I mean, they're an American bank. They don't

1521
00:54:43,144 --> 00:54:43,644
even

1522
00:54:44,105 --> 00:54:46,984
play cricket in America really on a large

1523
00:54:46,984 --> 00:54:47,484
scale.

1524
00:54:48,105 --> 00:54:48,824
You know, they don't

1525
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:52,659
JPMorgan doesn't really have any care for cricket

1526
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:53,380
in itself.

1527
00:54:55,199 --> 00:54:55,699
And,

1528
00:54:56,079 --> 00:54:57,780
yeah, they're they're one of the biggest

1529
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,219
funders of new fossil projects

1530
00:55:02,079 --> 00:55:04,260
in the past few years. You know? So

1531
00:55:04,855 --> 00:55:05,594
in essence,

1532
00:55:06,375 --> 00:55:08,454
yeah, the home of cricket has got a

1533
00:55:08,454 --> 00:55:10,235
way to go. I think

1534
00:55:10,934 --> 00:55:13,175
the work the stance that we've always taken

1535
00:55:13,175 --> 00:55:13,914
is that

1536
00:55:15,175 --> 00:55:16,315
we don't want

1537
00:55:17,079 --> 00:55:18,059
to be anyone

1538
00:55:18,519 --> 00:55:21,159
with a stick. It's not like we're not

1539
00:55:21,159 --> 00:55:23,400
the ones who go onto the street and

1540
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:26,199
glue ourselves to things. We're not the ones

1541
00:55:26,199 --> 00:55:26,699
who

1542
00:55:27,079 --> 00:55:27,739
are badgering

1543
00:55:28,359 --> 00:55:28,859
people,

1544
00:55:29,635 --> 00:55:31,555
and shoving things down their throat and, you

1545
00:55:31,555 --> 00:55:33,894
know, getting in their way of their ordinary

1546
00:55:34,114 --> 00:55:36,675
day. In essence, we just want to play

1547
00:55:36,675 --> 00:55:37,175
cricket.

1548
00:55:38,035 --> 00:55:39,954
We just want to do the thing that

1549
00:55:39,954 --> 00:55:40,614
we love

1550
00:55:41,315 --> 00:55:41,815
and,

1551
00:55:42,755 --> 00:55:45,139
and all the positive things that come that.

1552
00:55:45,519 --> 00:55:46,019
Annoyingly,

1553
00:55:47,039 --> 00:55:49,460
there's all these problems happening in the world

1554
00:55:49,679 --> 00:55:52,579
that mean that actually our game is

1555
00:55:53,359 --> 00:55:55,299
really considerably under threat.

1556
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,239
Like the hit for 6 report basically showed

1557
00:55:58,239 --> 00:55:59,059
us how

1558
00:55:59,684 --> 00:56:01,065
of all the sports,

1559
00:56:01,925 --> 00:56:03,385
cricket is the most

1560
00:56:03,844 --> 00:56:04,344
vulnerable

1561
00:56:05,045 --> 00:56:06,184
to climate change

1562
00:56:07,204 --> 00:56:09,065
in the countries that

1563
00:56:09,684 --> 00:56:10,585
play cricket.

1564
00:56:11,364 --> 00:56:13,684
You know, in the the past 2 years,

1565
00:56:13,684 --> 00:56:14,664
we've seen

1566
00:56:15,579 --> 00:56:16,960
the worst devastating

1567
00:56:18,460 --> 00:56:19,359
weather events

1568
00:56:19,900 --> 00:56:21,839
in cricket playing nations.

1569
00:56:22,460 --> 00:56:24,159
So you've got the West Indies,

1570
00:56:24,619 --> 00:56:25,119
cyclones,

1571
00:56:26,059 --> 00:56:26,559
floods.

1572
00:56:27,819 --> 00:56:28,880
You've got India,

1573
00:56:29,765 --> 00:56:30,425
heat waves,

1574
00:56:31,125 --> 00:56:31,625
flooding.

1575
00:56:32,164 --> 00:56:32,664
Pakistan,

1576
00:56:33,525 --> 00:56:34,025
Bangladesh,

1577
00:56:35,125 --> 00:56:35,945
New Zealand,

1578
00:56:36,485 --> 00:56:36,985
Australia,

1579
00:56:38,324 --> 00:56:38,824
wildfires.

1580
00:56:39,684 --> 00:56:42,244
It's just, you know, it's completely and there's

1581
00:56:42,324 --> 00:56:42,719
and

1582
00:56:43,199 --> 00:56:46,260
South Africa. South Africa has been, you know,

1583
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:46,900
obliterated

1584
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:49,300
with flooding. And

1585
00:56:49,679 --> 00:56:51,359
when you talk about those,

1586
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:52,739
those places,

1587
00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:55,780
it's not just,

1588
00:56:56,214 --> 00:56:57,034
you know, communities,

1589
00:56:57,574 --> 00:57:00,694
people, people's lives, and cricket clubs that are

1590
00:57:00,694 --> 00:57:02,954
suffering. Like in the long term, cricket's

1591
00:57:03,414 --> 00:57:05,255
a game where you have to you have

1592
00:57:05,255 --> 00:57:06,714
to do it for future generations.

1593
00:57:07,574 --> 00:57:10,074
So you if your club is getting,

1594
00:57:10,460 --> 00:57:13,339
you know, pummeled every year and you've gotta

1595
00:57:13,339 --> 00:57:14,319
rebuild it

1596
00:57:14,699 --> 00:57:16,859
and the community around it have to rebuild

1597
00:57:16,859 --> 00:57:18,880
it every year, you are devastating

1598
00:57:19,579 --> 00:57:22,779
the future players of that game. They aren't

1599
00:57:22,779 --> 00:57:25,244
gonna they they're not gonna rise up to,

1600
00:57:25,644 --> 00:57:27,744
to to world class level if

1601
00:57:28,204 --> 00:57:30,605
and the way I see it, and this

1602
00:57:30,605 --> 00:57:31,964
is one of the main things that has

1603
00:57:31,964 --> 00:57:32,045
gone

1604
00:57:32,764 --> 00:57:33,824
if if your opponents

1605
00:57:34,684 --> 00:57:35,344
are constantly

1606
00:57:35,964 --> 00:57:36,464
drowning,

1607
00:57:37,164 --> 00:57:39,424
you can't actually say you're winning.

1608
00:57:39,929 --> 00:57:42,489
Thank you very much to Xena, Gilles, and

1609
00:57:42,489 --> 00:57:44,170
Peter for talking to me for this episode

1610
00:57:44,170 --> 00:57:44,909
of the podcast.

1611
00:57:45,289 --> 00:57:48,589
In researching the podcast, I found examples of

1612
00:57:48,650 --> 00:57:50,809
good practice and bad practice from all over

1613
00:57:50,809 --> 00:57:52,614
the world. But after looking at the World

1614
00:57:52,614 --> 00:57:54,535
Cup, I wanted to concentrate on some of

1615
00:57:54,535 --> 00:57:57,195
the teams local to me, not just because

1616
00:57:57,575 --> 00:58:00,535
as we take our next tentative steps at

1617
00:58:00,535 --> 00:58:02,215
the point we are in our battle against

1618
00:58:02,215 --> 00:58:03,114
COVID 19,

1619
00:58:03,414 --> 00:58:06,289
I've been able to travel a little bit

1620
00:58:06,510 --> 00:58:07,170
at least

1621
00:58:07,630 --> 00:58:10,190
in a sustainable way and in my local

1622
00:58:10,190 --> 00:58:12,449
area and mostly for escapism

1623
00:58:12,829 --> 00:58:14,610
in the form of sport.

1624
00:58:19,364 --> 00:58:21,045
We'll be back next month when we'll be

1625
00:58:21,045 --> 00:58:23,545
looking at something else from this wonderful world

1626
00:58:23,684 --> 00:58:25,925
of physics. And thank you very much for

1627
00:58:25,925 --> 00:58:26,425
listening.

1628
00:58:31,605 --> 00:58:32,105
Physics

1629
00:58:32,405 --> 00:58:32,905
world.