The UN Climate Change Secretariat launched the new Sports for Climate Action Framework that was developed with the sports sector. The aim of the new framework is to gather sports organisations, teams, athletes, and fans in a concerted effort to raise awareness and action to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement for climate protection.

“Our commitment to protecting our climate remains unwavering. We recognise the critical need for everyone to help implement the Paris Agreement and accelerate the change needed to reach greenhouse gas emission neutrality in the second half of the twenty-first century. FIFA welcomes the UN’s development of the Sports for Climate Action Framework, and I am pleased to confirm that FIFA will support the vision outlined in the new framework”, said FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura.

Already in 2016, FIFA joined the UN Climate Change secretariat’s initiative Climate Neutral Now, becoming the first international sports organisation to do so. By joining the campaign, FIFA pledged to continue to strive to become greenhouse gas emission-neutral by the mid-21st century, and committed to measuring, reducing and offsetting all of its own greenhouse gas emissions at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

FIFA has been engaging with its stakeholders, with Local Organising Committees, fans and other institutions since the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ to raise awareness on climate action, and measure, reduce and offset its carbon emissions. In relation to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA and the LOC teamed up with experts to estimate the emissions in the 2018 FIFA World Cup greenhouse gas accounting report. In total, FIFA and the LOC offset 243,000 tonnes of unavoidable carbon emissions through a verified low-carbon project in Russia and through UN-backed projects. The amount corresponds to 11.2 per cent of the total carbon emitted in the organising and staging of the event. This amount includes the direct and indirect emissions from scope 1 and scope 2, as well as emissions from scope 3 over which FIFA and the LOC have complete or partial operational control.

In April 2018, FIFA also launched its second climate action campaign for FIFA World Cup encouraging successful ticket applicants to offset the carbon emissions resulting from their travel to the tournament for free. For each ticket holder signing up, FIFA offset 2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO2e), which was the average emission per ticket holder travelling from abroad. When signing up, fans automatically entered a prize draw to win two tickets for the FIFA World Cup final.