We know you don’t subscribe to us just to updates about baseball, but here’s some news actually worth discussing: The New York Yankees, arguably the most despised team in America, has just made themselves a little more lovable after becoming the first and only baseball team in the world to align itself with the Paris Climate Agreement. The Yankees signed onto the United Nation’s Sports for Climate Action Framework this past week, finally adding some US representation among the international signatories, which include FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.
The U.N. announced the initiative back in December 2018 with the goal of uniting sports teams, organizations, their athletes, and fans to take action to meet the greenhouse gas reduction goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
The framework ultimately calls for the “net-zero emission economy of 2050” laid out in the Paris Agreement. The world of sports can make this happen by committing to a set of five principles, including making systemic changes to improve environmental responsibility, reduce overall climate impact, education, promoting sustainable consumption, and advocating. In short, the U.N. wants sports organizations to bake sustainable policies into their business plans by measuring their greenhouse gas emissions, setting forth plans on how to reduce them, and helping teach their fans about climate change and how to be a better steward. Considering that half of Americans are sports fans, per Gallup, the UN may be onto something.
