Emma Pocock is waking sport up to the impacts of climate change
Environmental issues have always been central to Emma Pocock’s work, but after the bushfire season of 2019-20, this took on a whole new focus. Having spent a decade embedded in the rugby world alongside her husband David Pocock – former Wallabies captain and now politician – she knew the impact sport could have on our national conversation about climate change. So she started FrontRunners, a small but mighty organisation working behind the scenes helping athletes feel more confident to talk about the impacts of climate change.
Jess Bineth (Gadigal Country) in conversation with Emma Pocock (Ngunnawal Country)
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I grew up in the north-west of Western Australia. My Dad worked for BHP and so I spent my childhood in the hot, red heart of the Pilbara before moving to Perth and then a decade ago to Canberra, where I still live, on Ngunnawal Country.
I’ve always had an interest in political change and climate action and in the past have worked for a think tank and as a political staffer. Despite having spent so much time around footy clubs and at stadiums thanks to my partner Dave’s rugby career, it never occurred to me that it was through sport I could make a contribution.
Tell me more about making that shift into sport. Was there a tipping point for you?
In 2019 I took a good chunk of time off to go and watch Dave at his last Rugby World Cup and then we took a retirement trip to Zimbabwe and Japan. It gave me a lot of time to think about where I was best placed to work on the big challenges we’re facing. Then the bushfires of 2019-20 started to unfold and we suddenly had friends from the sporting world coming to us with a lot of questions about what was going on and asking what they should read, watch, learn and know.
There’s a quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estes that says, “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” For me, unexpectedly, sport was the thing that was within my reach. And its power to contribute to the task we're facing is outsized. I realised that we've got this really tight timeline to get things right when it comes to climate change and as a massive cultural institution, sport has huge scope to contribute. It’s a sleeping giant for social change because people care about it so much. If we get sport to shift, we shift a really significant part of the culture.
Pat Cummins, captain of the Australian Test cricket team and founder of Cricket for Climate – a movement whose goal is for cricket clubs across Australia to achieve net-zero emissions over the next decade.
You launched FrontRunners off the back of the 2019-20 bushfires. Can you tell me about some of the things you’ve achieved since then?
One of the bigger, more public things we’ve done was ahead of the COP26 in Glasgow. This was before Australia had a climate commitment. We asked athletes to sign an open letter calling on the Morrison government to lift their ambitions on climate. Our goal was to get 50 athletes to put their name to it, but before we knew it we had almost 500 athletes across 40 sports sign on. And most of those people had never spoken out on climate change before.
In the wake of that, we've seen Footy for Climate launch with almost 300 AFL men's and women's players. We've seen the amazing work that Pat Cummins has done with his Cricket for Climate foundation. A lot of people would have read the headlines about Pat’s incredible climate principles but they maybe don’t see it being backed up with action. Like his amazing solar clubs initiative – putting solar panels on the roofs of as many local cricket clubs as possible and returning that money back into the grassroots of the game. There’s so much being done and a real sense of momentum is now building.
How much of this swing towards climate action in sport is motivated by the fans?
Fans not only want more action on climate change, they expect their clubs to be taking a lead on this. That’s not just anecdotal, we’ve got some real data to support this. So part of what we do is help athletes figure out how they can step into more of a leadership role when it comes to climate action and help sporting organisations work out how to plan for the very real risks of climate change. Those risks can be everything from player and spectator welfare in the event of extreme heat or flooding to the physical risks to club infrastructure. But it all comes back to the fans and what they want when it comes to the future of sport in Australia.
I think a lot of fans still consider their sporting identity separate to their concerns on climate change. How can these be brought together to do something impactful?
When we think about taking more action on climate change, emailing your local politician is a common step. That’s definitely impactful, but there are a lot of people who have access to power in our country who you are connected to. If you're a fee paying member of a sports organisation, like an AFL club, or even a local sports team you play for, you have the power to reach out to your CEO and tell them what you want from them. I know from the conversations I’m having with clubs that they are really sensitive to the concerns of their members. They want to keep them happy. They want to keep them on board. You are more powerful than you think and because cumulative actions got us into this big climate mess in the first place, cumulative actions are going to be what get us out of it. So sending that email really can make a difference.
AFL for Climate Action – a group of men’s and women’s AFL players calling for action on climate change.
You recently won a $40, 000 Groundswell grant. What are some of the plans you have for that funding and what are some of your goals for this year?
This year we’ll be continuing our bread-and-butter work supporting athletes. That might be on a public campaign, on finding the right educational tools, or on helping them talk to their club or a sponsor about why climate matters to them. We'll also be expanding our work with sporting organisations - from governing bodies to clubs and players' associations, we'll be working alongside them to help them understand the risk climate poses to sport, the opportunities of embracing the transition and how they can play their part. And, of course, we'll be talking to sports fans about what they care about and how they want to see their favourite teams become climate leaders.
Working in climate can be gruelling. On the hard days, what keeps you going?
This isn’t something I spend a lot of time thinking about because I just feel like there's no other choice. Once you understand the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees of global warming – how every fraction of a degree matters when it comes to saving the things we love and our safety in the world – then you just have to keep going.