The Climate Cup: How Sports Could Lead on Carbon Removal
Why the games we love are multiplying, and how dealing with the environmental costs of growth could fuel fandom.
This is an episode summary from episode 371 of the Reversing Climate Change podcast. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you consume podcasts.
🔹 Quick Takeaways
Sports as untapped climate allies: Aidan Preston argues that professional sports—global, profitable, and beloved—could become powerful drivers of carbon removal if they embraced credible offsets and removals.
From fandom to framework: A lifelong athlete and obsessive fan, Preston links his love of sports to the grit needed to work in climate: “It’s like having two older brothers who never let you win. You just get tougher.”
A massive but unaccounted footprint: Expanding tournaments, longer seasons, and international travel mean sports emissions are ballooning, even as leagues claim “net-zero” events.
A credibility crisis: FIFA, the Olympics, and others have made carbon neutrality claims that later collapsed under scrutiny. The result? A burned, risk-averse industry hesitant to reenter the carbon market.
The opportunity: New, high-quality carbon removals: durable, additional, and verifiable, could help leagues credibly address “hard-to-abate” travel and logistics emissions.
Decentralized decisions: U.S. leagues like the NFL and NBA leave sustainability choices to individual teams, creating fragmented results but also space for innovation.
Climate rivalries: Sports can turn sustainability into competition—imagine teams racing not just for trophies but for lowest emissions.
The case for optimism: “You gotta believe,” Preston says, quoting his beloved Mets. “That’s what keeps me in baseball and in climate.”
📝 Can Sports Become Climate Leaders?
Ross Kenyon’s conversation with Aidan Preston of Milkywire begins in childhood. Growing up as the youngest of three brothers, Aidan learned perseverance the hard way—getting dunked on and beaten in backyard games until grit replaced talent. That same persistence, he says, defines climate work: long odds, steep hills, and endless pressure from bigger forces forcing him to think and act strategically.
⚽️ Why Sports Matter in Climate
Sports are one of the few cultural arenas that still command global attention. From the World Cup to the Super Bowl, they unite billions in shared emotion—while also generating staggering emissions through travel, energy use, and construction.
Preston’s insight is simple but powerful: the very organizations with the most cultural influence have barely begun to use it.
Instead, they’ve flirted with potentially lower-quality offsets, been burned by scandal, and largely retreated from climate action. But the carbon market has changed. Durable, verifiable carbon removal—biochar, mineralization, DAC—offers a credible path forward.
“The fact that FIFA even tried to host a carbon-neutral World Cup shows they recognize the value of climate action,” he says. “They just haven’t figured out how to do it right yet.”
🏟️ The Growth Problem
Sports are booming. Global TV audiences are shrinking for everything except live events—and 75 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts last year were sports.
Networks want more games, more leagues, more airtime. The result? Ballooning emissions.
From the World Cup expanding to 48 teams across three countries, to college football adding coast-to-coast playoff travel, growth has become the default business model, even when it undermines the planet.
“Revenues are up. Seasons are longer. The games are bigger. But so are the emissions,” Preston says. “At some point, those have to be reconciled.”
💸 Why Credibility Matters
Many leagues already dipped into carbon markets—and regretted it. Preston cites examples of teams and organizations that bought forestry credits only to face accusations of greenwashing.
“They acted in good faith,” he says, “but the products weren’t ready yet.”
Now, high-quality removals can replace that embarrassment with pride. A $12 forestry credit might buy good press for a year; a $300-per-ton engineered removal could underpin genuine climate integrity—and new fan loyalty.
Ross suggests that early adopters could see competitive advantage: “If a team I hate does something truly credible on climate, I’ll hate them a little less.”
Preston laughs. “Exactly. It moves the needle.”
🏈 Decentralization: Curse and Blessing
In the U.S., leagues like the NFL don’t dictate environmental policy; each team sets its own agenda. That makes climate action messy but dynamic.
Some teams, like the Philadelphia Eagles, are pioneers in sustainability. Others lag behind. Preston envisions a future where sustainability becomes part of the rivalry—like SailGP, a racing league that includes an environmental leaderboard alongside its performance scores.
“Imagine teams competing for lowest emissions. That’s how you change behavior,” he says.
🎰 The Betting Boom and the Carbon Bill
The two also touch on a surprising parallel: the rise of sports betting. Preston, who grew up making picks with his dad, now sees gambling’s pervasiveness as a moral warning. “It’s pernicious,” he says. “The odds are worse than ever, but people think they can win.”
🧊 Finding Humanity Through Competition
Even with rivalry and ego at the center of sports, Preston believes the games connect us. He quotes Alan Hershkowitz, the godfather of sports sustainability, who once said: “If you want to meet real Americans, go to a baseball game.”
“Sports can be the bridge,” Preston says. “You meet people as humans first. Then maybe you can talk about climate.”
Ross agrees—and jokes that baseball’s pace certainly leaves time for deep conversation.
⚾️ Faith, Failure, and the Mets
Preston closes on a note both humble and hopeful. As a lifelong New York Mets fan, he’s accustomed to heartbreak. But the team’s unofficial slogans—“There’s always next year” and “You gotta believe”—double as climate mantras.
“It’s kept me in Mets fandom,” he says, “and it’ll keep me in the climate fight. You gotta believe we can still win.”
🌎 Final Reflection
Preston doesn’t preach guilt. He pitches opportunity:
Sports, entertainment, and culture are where the public already pays attention. If athletes and leagues can turn competition toward decarbonization—through credible carbon removal and transparent action—their victories will outlast any trophy.
