"Whilst I agree, I think he missed one: sport can, if we let it, be one of our best climate change and environmental policies too.
"Climate change has often – and rightly – been called a 'threat multiplier'. Like petrol on a fire, it takes existing crises – health, inequality, nature depletion – and makes them much worse.
"The challenges you face will depend on which corner of the globe you are watching from today.
"Whether it is melting ski runs, repeatedly flooded pitches or water too dirty for athletes to swim in, you know this better than anyone in the sports sector.
"But if climate change is a 'threat multiplier', sport can be a 'solution multiplier'.
"And as a sector, we can choose to help society use this unique gift.
"But despite some incredible pioneers, as a sector, we aren’t yet punching our weight. So, my call to action today is for a mindset shift, and a lifting of our ambition.
"Today, I want to call for three major gear shifts to realise our full potential. The first two are for our sector, the third is for the organisations that set legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks.
"As sustainability champions, the first fundamental shift we need is to give equal weight to public influencing as much as internal operations.
"To look upwards and outwards. To inspire our participants, fans, and service users. Not just change buildings, procurement and waste policies (as vitally important as that is). We must leverage the unique platform of sport and physical activity to win hearts and minds.
"When we surveyed UK children, fully 65% said they want to see sports stars championing efforts to tackle climate change. Icons like Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, and Emma Raducanu were amongst those mentioned. These are the role models, their voices are listened to, people emulate their actions.
"So it's time to use the global megaphone only sport has.
"Second, we need to make a much stronger connection between high-performance and grassroots sports and focus the debate on both.
"The reach we have through local sports clubs is immense. Through them, we are emotionally embedded in just about every community and household.
"For example, in England alone, there are more than 75,000 sports clubs. That includes 23,000 football clubs, 7,000 thousand cricket clubs, 5,000 bowls clubs and 3,000 tennis clubs. Ten million people volunteer in sports clubs, and one in four people in England is a member of one. I could go on.
"Situated in every neighbourhood, village, town and city across the country, grassroots clubs provide an unparalleled 'delivery network'.
"I recently cycled from Manchester to Paris in advance of the Olympics. On the route, more than 200 local organisations signed our Going for Green pledge, choosing to commit to take tangible action to towards becoming sustainable.
"We partnered with BBC Sport for that journey. And I should take this moment to thank David Lockwood in particular, not just for his work on Pedal for Paris but for an outstanding track record in public purpose journalism around green sport. Along with organisations like Sports Positive, he continues to be a pioneer.
"From moss planting in the Peak District with the British Mountaineering Council, water testing at Paddle UK in Nottinghamshire and rewilding at a local football club, we saw some incredible local innovation. Simple, yet effective. That could be scaled and replicated many times over, for the national good.
"Grassroots sport can build bridges in a world of siloes.
"The third and final change we need concerns all those policymakers in leadership roles who set laws, rules and regulations.
"We need to re-wire the system so there are suitable incentives to do the right thing, and more consequences for doing the wrong thing. There have been 28 COPs so far – number 29 is in Azerbaijan later this year.
"Whilst important, only marginal global improvements have so far been achieved. The world is still careering toward catastrophic warming, in part because voluntary action still dominates the agenda, with regulation remaining politically unpopular in a world focused primarily on economic growth.
"As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said, if we are to make progress, 'the polluter must pay'.
"But instead, we see a perverse situation across the globe where many of the biggest polluting companies and industries are actually subsidised, rather than facing financial consequences.
"The rules aren’t currently structured to truly encourage people to do the right thing.
"But it’s changing. We’re seeing governments around the world start to act, and the new UK government is following suit.
"In common with the disruption we saw to Olympic swimming in the Seine at the Olympics, this year’s historic varsity boat race between Oxford and Cambridge further exposed the state of our nation’s waterways.
"For the first time ever, it became of international media interest. As the New York Times put it: 'The warning is stern: Do not enter the water. Not because of the tide. Not because of sharks. Because of the sewage.'
"Last month, the government announced new legislation with harsher penalties for polluting water companies.
"And Sport England is also acting. We are doing more than ever to help our sector take meaningful action and supporting our partners to do the right thing with £100 million of new investment.
"Later this year, we will publish an update on our three investment priorities for environmental sustainability – energy and resources, resilience and nature – to help drive the government’s environmental mission. Our Movement Fund will provide more financial support than ever to grassroots clubs to become sustainable.
"And we’re going to take stronger action on those who are doing the wrong thing.
"Our new sustainability strategy, Every Move, makes clear that every major ‘system’ partner must have a robust environmental strategy by 2027 as a condition of public funding. A position I should note they have wholeheartedly supported.
"Our Royal Charter makes clear we have the power to 'encourage and support the adoption of the highest ethical standards among persons or teams from England participating in sport and physical recreation'. We have a duty to protect its future.
"Sport’s carbon footprint and contribution to waste is massive. The number of people who go to sports events – and thus the amount of consumption – is immense.
"Take the Rio Olympics. Even excluding fan travel, the event produced more carbon than 26 countries with a combined population of more than 10 million during the whole of 2016.
"In the UK, as it is for many other countries, football is our national game. In the Premier League, we have the most popular sports league in the world, with a reach and influence that is unparalleled.
"Led by the Football Association, there is some fantastic work under way – and there are individual clubs who are doing great work. I know Sport Positive has done great work to showcase some of the best through publication of its league tables. Clubs like Forest Green Rovers, Bristol City, Watford and Plymouth Argyle are leading the way.
"When I visited Lewes Football Club recently, I was so impressed by their community garden, sales of recycled kit and delicious vegan menu, that I even bought shares in the club at £1 each.
"But it’s far from a uniform picture.
"The sport and physical activity sector need to be acutely aware of the growing public support that 'the polluter should pay'.
"So it’s not surprising that FIFA faced accusations of 'greenwashing' when it announced the 2030 World Cup would be held on three continents, growing the carbon footprint.
"Or that UEFA faced criticism for putting growth first and the planet second. Changes to its continental competitions will mean an extra 177 games across all three competitions.
"In terms of Premier League clubs, we are seeing wildly inconsistent action.
"This year, half of the Premier League – 10 clubs – flew to the United States – for friendlies.
"Manchester United's pre-season schedule saw them flying almost 13,000 miles to play fixtures in Norway, Scotland, and across the US.
"Spurs and Newcastle played an exhibition fixture in May – three days after the season finished – for which they both flew to Melbourne, Australia, a game Alan Shearer described as 'madness'.
"Add in those air miles and both teams will have travelled in excess of 30,000 miles, equivalent to more than once around the globe, to play in non-competitive matches – in the close season.
"To their credit, in contrast, several clubs chose to play games against neighbouring non-league clubs. This provided much-needed income to make the football pyramid more sustainable, whilst also boosting the local economies. Credit to Southampton, West Ham, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.
"As David Wheeler, the football campaigner put it so well: 'The vast majority of players don’t want to be away from their families, they don’t want to be travelling around the world after a full slog of a season. They’re overworked and injuries have gone through the roof. There is a synergy between player welfare and planetary welfare.'
"I’m a pragmatist, not a moral absolutist. I don’t believe in outright bans on flying, but we all need to strike a much better balance.
"It is time for all of our top football clubs to step up, and put themselves on the right side of history.
"Public attitudes are changing, particularly of younger people, fan power is getting stronger and calls for 'the polluter to pay' will only grow louder as the years pass, and warming gets worse.
"Our sector should and can be leaders, not laggards. Future generations want sport to act as a moral compass for wider society. So, let’s lead.
"With an estimated three billion fans worldwide, which works out roughly a third of the global population, our influence is huge. So, let’s lead.
"We can be a direct and practical mouthpiece for communicating climate issues to large and diverse audiences. So, let’s lead.
"Nelson Mandela famously suggested that sport has the power to change the world. I mostly agree with him, and we’ve seen it work before, but I’d like to add a caveat.
"Sport has the power to change the world if the sector intentionally organises itself to do so. Changing the world doesn’t just happen.
"So, let’s get organised. Let’s lift our ambition. Let’s lead."
