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Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the third of September. I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Lucy Tassel. A group of prominent Australian athletes have signed an open letter calling on the federal government to commit to an emissions reduction target of at least seventy five percent below two thousand and five levels
by twenty thirty five. Sport four seventy five percent. The campaign behind the letter says, quote in sport, we understand ambitious goals and understand what it means to achieve them. When it comes to climate, we expect the same from our leaders.
The pledge has been signed by professionals from across the fields of the AFL rugby union, soccer, surfing, cycling, snow sports, athletics and beyond. Include Dating Matilda's player Alex chidiak Ex socru Craig Foster, Freemantle captain Alex Pierce and AFLW legend Nicola Barr.
Barr joined GWS as the number one pick in the inaugural AFLW draft in twenty sixteens. After nine seasons with the Giants, she signed with Saint Kilda last year. But off the field, Bar works with several climate and environment groups, including front Runners and Athlete Led Conservation Organization and the group behind Sport for seventy five. To tell us more about this letter and what it's calling for, Barr joins us for today's deep dive.
Before we get into it, here's a quick word from our sponsor.
Nicola Barr. Welcome to the Dally Os Podcast.
Thanks so much for having me.
We are very excited to be chatting to you today. We are talking about this Sport for seventy five initiative. The campaign is calling for a seventy five percent emissions reduction by twenty thirty five. Why this targets specifically, Where is the seventy five coming from?
Yeah, well, I guess what we know is that seventy five percent is a really strong target and it's what the experts are telling us, and so that's why we're calling for a seventy five percent reduction in Australia's emissions. And we know that it's not just good for the economy, it's also good for sport and that's why athletes are jumping on board and really trying to call for meaningful action.
Yeah, I want to understand a little bit more about why this initiative matters to athletes. We've got professional sports people, retired sports people from across a whole range of different sports. What is it about this diverse coalition that works why?
Now?
Look, I think this really started as well from the amazing leadership of the Business for seventy five campaign. They've had some amazing companies like Fortescue and Unilever and lend Lease and Ika all jump on board calling for a target of seventy five percent as well. And I think of athletes, you know, we're seeing climate change impact sport
across all different kinds of sports and codes. And what we know as athletes is that whilst it's impacting us at the elite level, the biggest impacts are on grassroots sport and community sport. And we grew up playing sport, loving sport, and really want future generations of kids to be able to experience the same things that we did as kids. And I guess for athletes, you know, we're role models in society a lot of the time, and our voice can have a really positive impact.
So I guess joining.
Together is a really nice way to be able to call for meaningful action from our government. We know that in Australia we punch well above our weight when it comes to the world stage on sport, and we think that we can when it comes to climate action as well.
How has extreme weather or climate change impacted your playing career? Have you seen it firsthand? What does that look like?
Yeah? Absolutely.
I think in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, when we had the Black Summer bush fire, I was playing for the Giants in Greater Western Sydney and I can remember running out to training in what felt like apocalyptic conditions.
We sort of ran outside.
There was the sky was orange, there was ash in the sky, and we were doing laps around the oval and couldn't even breathe properly. And I guess that the conversation that I'd had with my teammates at the time was, you know, if this is impacting us and we have all the resources to adapt and change our training so that we can stay safe, what does this kind of experience mean for younger athletes and grassroots athletes?
And so that was probably.
The first time that happened, and then since then, you know, we played in extreme heat conditions. We've played in Blacktown in thirty six degrees and even this year alone in the AFL we saw Round one rescheduled due to cyclone Alfred. We've seen extreme heat, you know, even into Round five that gather around in Adelaide. So it's impacting all sports. I've just caught out a couple of AFL examples because
that's where I played. But we know that, you know, even recently a report on the impacts of climate on cricket, and so many games are being impacted by extreme weather.
And it's not just the athletes who are suffering.
It's the sports fans that go there, it's the coaches, it's the volunteers. This is something that impacts everyone who loves sport, and in Australia, sports such a huge part of the way we live our lives and we want to do everything we can to make sure everyone can experience it into the future.
Yeah, I think the cricket example is really interesting because you know, while we're not all professional athletes, we are a sporting nation. There are so many of us who love being spectators and supporting our favorite sporting codes, you know, whatever they may be. It's interesting to think about the impact of what that's like on the other side, you know, sitting in the stands of the SCG for a test on a forty degree day and the health impacts there.
Yeah. Absolutely. Like I said, it's not just the athletes that this is impacting. It's impacting everyone involved in sport. And I know we've seen several examples of you know, fans who are sitting in the stands or in the ground suffering from heat exhaustion.
It does become a real to sport itself.
So we really want to make sure that the sport's doing everything that it can to protect itself into the future and to safeguard fans, athletes, volunteers, coaches, everyone involved.
The open letter states in sport, we understand ambitious goals. How does your mindset as an athlete translate into your approach to goal setting and climate advocacy.
Yeah.
I guess when we were thinking about this at front Runners, we really thought, you know, what do athletes think, and I certainly know from my own experience, like you always want to set the bar really high for yourself and for your team, and we just thought, why would we not do the same when it comes to climate action, Like, why would we set ourself a goal that is like too easy to achieve or not ambitious. That's not what we do when we're thinking about high performance and wanting
to get the best out of ourselves. We always set high, high goals and high expectations and often we can end up achieving them because we put things in plays to make sure that we can actually reach that goal. So yeah, I think it's just a really great metaphor to think about when we think about athletes setting high goals for themselves. We know that we can do the same when it comes to climate action and reducing our emissions here in Australia.
There's obviously a policy push here that will require action from lawmakers. But what can competitions like the AFLW be doing to better support players through a climate crisis.
Yeah, it's a great point. And in AFLW, we actually used to play over the summer months, which was, you know, looking back now is crazy. We had games I mentioned before where we play in really extreme heat conditions of like thirty six degrees plus. So we have shifted the competition to now be played over the more winter and I guess spring months as well, which is definitely helping that. Unfortunately, we are seeing hotter days creep into those months outside of summer as well, so it.
Is really something to consider.
I think what sports governing bodies like the AFL can continue to do is advocate and speak really positively about climate action to their fans and followers, but also thinking
really practically about what they can do. It's all about making sure there's a really strong heat policy and that everyone's across what that means and what that looks like, making sure that everyone knows actually where the heat policy sits and what it means for them, but also making sure we're moving away from high polluting sponsors as well. That's a really important part of what sport can do when it comes to positive role modeling as well.
There's a lot of conversation in the news at the moment about emissions reduction targets, a push within the nationals to scrap net zero. Do you feel that there are maybe some misunderstandings or some myths that need to be busted in the emissions reduction space. Is there something that you wish you could clarify or that you're trying to clarify through sport for seventy five.
Look, I think I would start off by saying I'm definitely not an industrial systems analyst or economic model, but what I do know is that are plenty of experts out there, like the climate change authorities Matt keain an New's professor Frank Jotsoe explaining that this target actually is really achievable. Like we said before, what's the point of
setting targets if they're easy to hit. That's definitely what our mindset is as athletes, and I think the other thing to say is that a show has always been an innovator. We've got the highest penetration of rooftop solar in the world, and already forty percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources. So we're in pole position to
demonstrate our leadership on emissions reduction. And if we want to do things like host the next cop and show communities and the rest of the world that we're really serious about this, we do need to commit to it with an ambitious target.
What needs to be done from here? How do we increase our targets to incorporate those ambitions to make this possible.
Well, look, I think that the other thing I should have said before is that our current climate commitments by states and territories already point to a reduction of between sixty six to seventy one percent by twenty thirty five. So a national target of seventy five percent is absolutely within our reach.
So I think now it's.
Just about having conversations with the right people to make sure that we are setting this really ambitious target. And we can see that so many people want this here in Australia. You know, we've had seventy five athletes for seventy five percent reduction, and you know we're getting athletes jumping on board this campaign more and more as we speak, and we can see that business really wants this as well.
So I think it's just about having the right conversations and working together to make sure that we can protect the future for generations to come.
Looking ahead to twenty thirty five, if this campaign is successful, what do you hope the sporting landscape will look like? How will it be different from today?
I think what it'll look like is more of what we love right. Sport brings us together.
It's a place where we can cheer for our teams, commiserate if they're not going well, and it's a place where we can have a lot of joy. Whether that's elite sport or community sport. It's one of those places that is there for everyone. Sport is there for everyone, and it's a really important place that we can, I guess,
come together in times of hardship as well. There's a lot going on in the world, and I think for us at front As, sport is such a beautiful way for us to connect as community and it really shows what we can be like at our best. So for me, what it looks like is sport continuing to be a huge part of our society moving forward. It's great for our health, it's great for our communities, and we just want to see that be able to continue into the future.
It's sein I see your passion, Nikola. Before we let you go, it's been a week since we broke here at TDA the story from the incredible Mitch Brown coming out as the first openly gay or bisexual male player past or present in the AFL. Do you have a sponsor a comment on that one to share with us today.
We think Mitch Brown is absolutely amazing here at front Runners. He's actually supported a lot of our campaigns as well, so we absolutely love what Mitch does.
And really applaud him for his bravery and what he's been.
Able to do, particularly with you guys in the last week in terms of what it means for the AFL I really hope this is a positive step and mich has been really brave to come out and do what he's done. And I think Mitch even said in a statement later to get along to an AFLW game, and the reason for that is I think AFLW can show how inclusive and amazing sport can be when we do create safe spaces for people to be themselves. So just really hope that what Mitch has done has a really
positive flow on effect. I know it's already had a massive impact and just completely think he's awesome.
So love Mitch, brilliant. Thank you so much for your time, Nick.
No worries, thanks for having me, Emma A big thanks to Nichola Barth for joining us on today's podcast. We'll be back again this afternoon with the headlines. Until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calgutin woman from Gadighl country.
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