Scientific Programme
Plenary Session
PS-PL02 - Interconnections between planetary health and sport - hard facts, inconvenient truths and why it is time to act now
Date: 09.07.2026, Time: 11:30 - 12:45, Session Room: Auditorium A (STCC)
Description
Chair(s)
Karim Abu-Omar
Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Department of Sport Science and Sport
Germany
Speaker A
Kim van Daalen
University of Cambridge, Department of Public Health and Primary Care
United Kingdom
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The impact of climate change on health
Recent scientific assessments paint a stark picture. The State of the Climate 2025 (“A planet on the brink,” Ripple et al., 2025) and the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change (Romanello et al., 2025) reports both warn that climate-related health risks have reached unprecedented levels. Complementing these findings, the Planetary Health Check 2025 (Caesar et al., 2025) states that humanity has now crossed seven of nine planetary boundaries. What does this mean for us—as scientists, faced with extremely robust evidence of accelerating planetary risk; as parents and grandparents, concerned for our children’s future; and as sport enthusiasts, wondering how changing conditions will reshape the activities we love? This plenary will collate the evidence of planetary ill-health and its wide-ranging consequences for human health and flourishing. It will move beyond alarm, but shall serve as a “wake-up call” for sport scientists and ask then to actively engage in confronting the risks of environmental breakdown rather than burying their heads in the sand. Dr van Daalen will give an overview from a quantitative perspective of what climate change means for health, with reference to physical activity and sport, and what collective action is needed to mitigate the negative effects of global warming.
Speaker B
Paquito Bernard
University of Montpellier, Laboratory Epsylon
France
Read CVECSS Rimini 2025: PS-PL02
How climate change is connected to sport and how it will impact the future of how we practice sport
Keynote 2 will be delivered by Prof. Paquito Bernard, who is working at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Rennes, France. Prof. Bernard has worked and published extensively on the interconnections between planetary health and physical activity and sport. His keynote will take a social science perspective, summarizing the existing evidence on how physical activity and sport are interconnected with climate change. He will outline three major roles that physical activity and sport play in the context of climate change. First, physical activity and sport related practices contribute to accelerating the climate change. Paradoxically, they can also play a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emission. Finally, the current and future climate change consequences require an urgent reorganization and rethinking of sports and physical activity. Prof. Bernard will also report on his own research, regarding the development of ‘win-win’ behavior change interventions aimed at improving both health and climate resilience among populations with special needs. He will highlight the imperative for academic sport community to play a pivotal role in addressing the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change. He will present concrete directions or reorienting research and training efforts towards climate action. Regarding mitigation efforts, he will provide of multi-level behavior changes strategies, focusing on transport modes or plant-based diet shifts. Regarding adaptation efforts, he will present tangible strategies for athletes and sport organizations to cope with extreme heat.