The Duty of Care Bill builds on the case of Sharma v Minister for the Environment, a legal challenge by brave Australian schoolchildren, led by Anjali Sharma, who argued that the government owes all young Australians a duty to take reasonable care to protect them from climate change harm.

The Bill seeks to add two conditions to decisions made under six existing pieces of legislation, including the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It asks decision-makers: 

1. To consider the likely impact of decisions that could harm the climate on the health and well-being of current and future children as the paramount consideration; and 

2. Not to make a decision that could harm the climate if the decision poses a material risk of harm to the health and well-being of current and future children in Australia.

Adding these conditions would require decision-makers to consider the impact of decisions that could harm the climate on the health and well-being of current and future children. This would prevent decisions being made that are bad for people and the planet. For example, if a new coal mine is proposed, then decision-makers must consider how the coal mine's greenhouse gas emissions would affect current and future kids. 

A government-controlled Senate Committee has rejected the Duty of Care Bill with both the Coalition and the Labor Party indicating they won’t support a duty of care. But, the Bill is yet to be voted on. 

We know athletes are deeply concerned about climate change and, in particular, how it will affect today's and tomorrow's young people. We want to give you the opportunity to voice these concerns and support the Duty of Care Bill by signing an open letter to the people of Australia and our elected representatives urging them to consider the harmful impact of their decisions and to think about future generations. 

We want the games and sports we love, and have learnt so much from, to exist for generations to come. 

Australia is a land of extremes, and climate change pushes those extremes even further. 

A long-term warming trend from the burning of coal, oil and gas and ongoing deforestation is supercharging extreme weather events in Australia. The burning of fossil fuels is by far the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. 

Australia is sometimes regarded as one of the world’s smaller greenhouse gas emitters. But this isn’t the case. Australia has one of the world’s highest per capita emissions for all greenhouse gases, double that of China, and nine times bigger than India. We are also the third largest exporter of fossil fuels, in a club of three that includes Russia and the United States. In 2022, Australia was the eighth largest emitter of fossil fuel CO2 per capita, without factoring in Australia’s exports. So this is a big global problem but it’s being driven by our fossil fuels. Not to mention we are the only global deforestation hotspot in the developed world.

In CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology’s recent State of the Climate 2024 report, there were five key findings: 

1. Temperatures are rising. Australia’s climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since national records began in 1910, with nine of the warmest years on record having occurred since 2013. Warming until 2040 is largely now locked in, due to greenhouse gases that have already accumulated in the atmosphere. 

2. Extremely hot days are becoming more frequent. Up until the 1970s, extremely hot days (i.e. days when the average temperature for the continent was in the top 1% of hottest on record) were extremely rare. 

3. Oceans are warming. Ocean temperatures all around Australia are rising, with the highest levels of warming in the Coral Sea (off Tasmania’s east and southeast of the country). Marine heatwaves are happening more often, threatening ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef. 

4. Bushfire risk is worsening. Most of Australia is now seeing more days each year where bushfire conditions are among the worst 10% on record, with some regions seeing as many as 25 more days of dangerous fire weather. 

5. Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. Between 2010 and 2019, fossil fuel burning released an average of 455m tonnes of CO2 a year. Emissions from fossil fuels exported from Australia added a further 1055m tonnes a year to the atmosphere. 

The severity of future extreme weather events in Australia depends on how fast and how deeply greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced, here in Australia and around the world. 

Athletes, like everyone else, have a carbon footprint. We all want to do our bit to tackle climate change, but there’s no getting around the travel requirements of professional sport in a country like Australia.


As with most things, it’s a balancing act. The social, cultural, physical and mental benefits of sport are important to society. We all need to play our part and work together to find solutions that will help us protect future generations. 

But while individual action really matters, what we do as a country matters even more. We want to be part of changing our own lives and making sure this lucky country steps up to the challenge for future generations.

Yes! Absolutely! But unfortunately, the scale of the global climate crisis is sometimes really hard for people to wrap their heads around. 

Humans are often better at dealing with problems that are right in front of us so connecting climate change to sport is a great way of helping people understand what’s at stake.

Now that climate change is affecting sport we think athletes have even more of a responsibility to stand up and say enough is enough. This letter helps us do our bit as an industry by saying the time is now. 

Yep, we’ve heard that before. But the impacts of climate change affect all of us, in different ways, and we’re prepared to speak out on the ways it’s affecting our industry and the Australian way of life. 

As community leaders and mentors we think we have a responsibility to do so. Sport is being and will continue to be affected by climate change just like everything else, and this is our way of asking for change.

Sign our letter to tell our leaders we need them to support the Duty of Care bill, to ensure they consider the impact of decisions that could harm the climate on the health and well-being of current and future children. Then share this campaign with everyone you can through social media and even just talking to your friends, family and colleagues about it, and ask them to sign the petition to support a Duty of Care. 

Want to know how to start that kind of conversation? Check out this handy podcast from the team at How To Save a Planet.

There are so many ways you can work with your family and friends to reduce your own footprint. Check out a bunch of resources here or get in touch with the team at FrontRunners to find out how your club, team or sport could be part of solving the climate crisis.

If you live in Australia then you’ll know that climate change has been a political football for the last decade. While the rest of the world, the business community and the overwhelming majority of Australians want climate action now our political leaders are very slow to act.

This letter is our chance to show that we want to do better. We’re a small country that has outperformed on the global stage. We’ve broken records, won gold, World Cups, you name it. And now it’s our chance to come from behind on climate action. The more Australians who sign on, the stronger the message we send to our government, and the world, about what Australians really want for our future.