Can the world’s biggest game help tackle the climate crisis?

[00:00:01][music] >> It is hot. Keep being a hot all the time.

[00:00:06]>> The world is heating up and it's becoming harder to ignore.

[00:00:10]>> Heat related mortality in Europe has gone up by 30%.

[00:00:13]>> Coming [music] up from record temperatures to wildlife struggling to survive in a warming world.

[00:00:18]>> It was absolute mayhem that we had all experienced. [music] >> As the mercury rises, are more people starting to connect the dots?

[00:00:26]>> But it's the pattern and I think that's what people have noticed.

[00:00:29]>> And as football fever grips the globe, researchers are hoping the game can help score a win for nature.

[00:00:35]>> What made the WWF >> [music] >> think football fans might be the perfect, I guess, teammates in the fight to protect forests?

[00:00:42]>> You will find many football fans who support a team they've never seen, but they support it with all their lives.

[00:00:48]>> Just 2° is on.

[00:00:51]Now.

[00:00:53]>> We need your passion to come through [music] so that together we can conserve forests.

[00:01:02]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Summer has begun here in Turkey and across the northern hemisphere and it is hot. And this time of year is somewhere we normally see temperatures of around 26° [music] C.

[00:01:35]Today, we're meeting that average, but it's often been above average during the month.

[00:01:41]>> From Europe to North America, unusually early heat waves have pushed temperatures well above seasonal averages. In some places, conditions feel more like the peak of summer than the month of June.

[00:01:57]>> Bah, la chaleur est >> Scientists say these extremes are part of a broader warming trend.

[00:02:09]But not everyone experiences heat in the same way.

[00:02:31]The last 3 years have been the warmest ever recorded globally and global temperatures continue to hover well above historical averages.

[00:02:39]>> Turkey just last year had its highest national temperature of 50.5 in one of your cities. So, I know that this is a concern in Turkey as it is across the world.

[00:02:52]>> And this isn't just a northern hemisphere story. As Australia and other parts of the southern hemisphere are moving to winter, forecasters are again predicting temperatures above seasonal averages, continuing a trend of increasingly mild winters. And for many, the heat can feel even more intense in cities, which absorb energy from the sun during the day and slowly release it after dark, creating what's known as the urban heat island effect.

[00:03:19]>> When you get heat waves, urban centers are more disproportionately impacted because of all the built up, because of the bricks and the asphalt and the pavement.

[00:03:28]So, the bigger the cities are, the bigger the impact of the people who live in the cities.

[00:03:32]>> And there's another factor scientists are watching closely. El Nino has returned to the global Pacific, a naturally occurring climate pattern that can push global temperatures even higher and influence weather around the world.

[00:03:45]Forecasters say it could strengthen in the months ahead, adding extra heat to a planet that's already experiencing some of its warmest years on record.

[00:03:55]And as summer and fall sets in the north and winter continues in the south, scientists will be watching closely to see just how much warmer the world could become.

[00:04:05]>> Well, I guess the element that is probably most remarkable is the fact that extreme heat is not just a one of these variable of interest to climatologists, but actually has an impact on a number of system. I mean, we were talking about biological system before, heat waves in the ocean, which was featured quite prominently in our European state of the climate report published in April. These heat waves have been significant in 2025 and will continue to be significant this year and the year to come. But also air temperature heat waves and the standard heat waves because they have an impact on us as humans. And so rising temperature means increasing the intensity, the frequency, the duration, and also the time of onset of of the heat waves. And we have seen, and this was one of the finding from the Lancet countdown a few couple of years ago, that heat related mortality in Europe has gone up by 30%. So by increase over the last 20 years. So by increasing these temperature, increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves, actually we make ourselves more more vulnerable and we put ourselves in a situation where we are more likely to to get stressed by the heat.

[00:05:18]>> What do you think El Niño will look like this year? I mean, the UN is already calling it a potential Godzilla of a system.

[00:05:26]>> Yeah, well, I leave this the comment on the Godzilla-like El Niño to others. In a sense, we prefer to stick to our data and models. And what we have seen in our data and models has been a steadily shift upward in the forecast. A shift upward by at least a quarter of a degree making The the prediction for El Nino for you know effectively a stronger El Nino if you want.

[00:05:51]Most model and this was in the statement of the World Meteorological Organization last week now predict an El Nino to to happen from from the summer and the the central estimate from the multi-system prediction of C3S for November is now center at around 3° if I'm correct.

[00:06:13]>> Well, heat isn't only affecting us in India's Gir Forest. Officials say eight endangered Asiatic lion cubs died after temperatures soared above 40° C.

[00:06:24]Young animals are particularly susceptible to rising temperatures and are less able to cope with prolonged periods of extreme heat.

[00:06:31]>> And as the climate warms, weather systems are becoming more volatile. In South Asia, forecasters are closely monitoring the interaction between extreme heat and seasonal monsoon rains, which can have major consequences for hundreds of millions of people.

[00:06:47]>> I I used to live in Chennai before I moved to Kerala and I lived through the 2015 floods in in Chennai, which was and that that was interesting and that was ironical that 2015 was the year when Paris Agreement was signed and as that that those negotiations were going on, Chennai, a city in South India in in the state of Tamil Nadu, went through its worst floods in what was called in 100 years. And it was absolute mayhem that we had all experienced.

[00:07:26]A complete destruction of infrastructure, power outage, massive displacement of people living in low-lying areas, massive loss of life and property. Apparently, the Chennai 2015 flood was among the costliest extreme weather events and disasters of 2015 or even in few decades. So, I I definitely lived through that and and and not just me as a person individually, but our community and and and the impacts were not just immediate, but the the more understated impacts were the mental health impacts.

[00:08:06]And everybody that we spoke to or we interacted with even subsequently, if there was a drizzle, people would panic because they would expect the worst.

[00:08:17]Um so so some of the impacts are not counted in terms of money, but those impacts are counted in terms of like what our lived experience has been. And and this is something we are we are documenting across. So, it was not unique to that specific flood in 2015, but every extreme weather event leads to displacement, destruction of property, people lose everything, everything, their houses, any property they have, damage to agriculture that takes years to recover.

[00:08:50]People lose their belongings. Sometimes I've seen people moving away with just a a set of photographs from from their family album. So, it's it's a massive loss both in terms of physical and emotional and and and and cultural identity. So, it's it's a massive mental health toll that that's not much talked about in general.

[00:09:17]Even after the Kerala floods of 2018, people needed mental health support for months to come.

[00:09:25]And again, those are the costs that that eventually show up in in loss of productivity, loss of well-being, or more irritability, or more social conflicts because of a an impact of an extreme weather events. Again, not much is talked about when it when we think about physical and mental health impacts in the context of response in in the context of stories that come out. And and these are absolutely important.

[00:09:54]>> Now we've just heard how rising temperatures are already reshaping lives, but climate scientists often focus on a surprisingly small number, and that's half a degree. It's time for just two matter where the smallest things can change everything. Today, why the difference between 1.5 and 2° C of warming matters so much.

[00:10:25]>> At 1.5° [music] heat waves get worse, but at 2°, they last longer and put hundreds of millions more people at risk.

[00:10:35]That half degree means many more droughts, especially in places already struggling for water.

[00:10:42]It also means heavier downpours, floods would hit more cities, [music] and force tens of millions more people from their homes.

[00:10:50]And seas keep rising.

[00:10:51]>> [music] >> That extra push could drown whole coastal communities and wipe out islands that might have survived at 1.5.

[00:11:00]Our food takes a hit, too. Crops like maize, wheat, and [music] rice would all drop, pushing hunger higher in vulnerable regions.

[00:11:09]At 1.5°, some coral reefs could hang on, but at two, almost all of them vanish along with the [music] species that depend on them.

[00:11:18]And our health suffers. There'd be more heat-related deaths, more diseases like malaria and dengue, and more strain on health care systems everywhere. But the UN says we're not on track for 1.5 [music] or even 2. By the end of the century, the world is headed toward around 2.7° of warming."

[00:11:40]And what life looks like at 2.7, we can only imagine.

[00:11:58]>> Extreme heats [music] may also be changing the way people think about the crisis. After recent heatwave in the UK, a survey by [music] the Climate Coalition found that more than eight in 10 people believe global warming was at least partly responsible for the unusually hot weather.

[00:12:14]>> Many also said heatwave had increased the importance of climate and nature in their minds. The findings suggest that for a growing number of people, the crisis is no longer viewed as something we don't need to collectively address today. Helen Meech is the Climate Coalition's executive director.

[00:12:30]>> I think the recent heatwave in the UK has really made the impact of climate change hit home for many. Recent polling that we took ahead of Great Big Green Week showed that 60 60% of the UK public believe that the heatwave was caused by climate change. They're worried about that and they want more action to tackle climate change as a result.

[00:12:50]>> Now, Helen, scientists generally caution against linking a single weather event directly to the climate crisis. So, how do you communicate that nuance while still helping people understand the broader trend?

[00:13:03]>> Yeah, absolutely. You you can't kind of always attribute one one sort of single moment, but it's the pattern and I think that's what people have noticed. This wasn't a summer heatwave. This was a heatwave in the spring.

[00:13:14]Um British springs usually sort of pretty pretty soggy um and and mild. So, to have extreme heat of up to 35° in spring is is really abnormal. So, I think it made people sit up and listen. So, it's about communicating the patterns of change and also the impact. People are really feeling the impact. You know, we had supermarket shelves empty.

[00:13:34]Um we had doctors' appointments and hospital appointments canceled. You had children struggling to um to study in classrooms in the run-up to their their final exams um summer exams. That's very unusual for this time of year in the UK.

[00:13:48]Um and and so I think that is really what's made people sit up and notice.

[00:13:52]>> Well, if more people believe, how does that translate into government and individual climate action?

[00:14:00]>> So, the vast majority of the public in the UK want more action for nature and climate. Um and uh that's what Great Big Green Week um really brings to life. Um for some people um we call it the silent majority. There's a lot of people that care that but don't necessarily sort of engage their politician on a regular basis or or you know, um get involved in campaigning. But, when you invite them into their community, if they're invited to an event that's held by their local um um uh place of worship, by their sports club, in their local um community center, then they're far more likely to engage. And so, Great Big Green Week this year is running um from the 6th to the 14th of June and we expect 2 million people to come out and engage as part of that week. Um and what that does is it um has multiple um effects. So, the one is it invites people in in a way that feels directly relevant to their lived experience. So, you know, when you're invited to an event by somebody you know and trust in your community, you're far more likely to engage with it. And we know that well, based on our data so far this year, we think over half people who are attending Great Big Green Week events um either rarely or have never engaged in nature or climate action action before.

[00:15:15]They're coming because it's organized by their faith leader, their teacher, um one of their friends, their neighbor down the road. They're coming for different reasons, um but crucially many of them are are leaving these events feeling I have a role to play here. I want to do more. So, it's bringing people together, helping them find the action that's right for them, and crucially, 2 million people, that really makes the the the public mandate visible um to politicians. It tells every MP and minister your voters care about this, and they're watching what you do.

[00:15:46]>> These days I find people are mostly focused on the cost of living. So, how do you convince them that climate action and economic security are not competing priorities?

[00:15:57]>> We absolutely need to link it back to every people's everyday lived experience because the climate crisis isn't something that's sort of over there and distant. The climate crisis is about our bills. It is about having food on supermarket shelves. A lot of these impacts that we're feeling day-to-day are directly being driven by the climate crisis. I've just reading an article this morning about how the cost of rice, of chocolate, of coffee, those kind of everyday items that lots of people really love, they're going to really, really rise this year as a direct result of climate impacts around the world. So, it's about connecting to people's everyday lives. And indeed, one of the things that we're calling for as the climate coalition is to cut bills, um to break that link between electricity prices and volatile gas markets, um to really invest in warm homes and clean energy, and to support workers who are transitioning out of fossil fuel industries, um so that we're making that the benefits of climate action really visible and tangible, and make people's lives better. This is about improving people's quality of life.

[00:17:00]>> [music] [music] >> Meanwhile, as nations battle it out at the FIFA World Cup 2026, [music] it's easy to see how the game can bring people together. The billions are following the matches and [music] conservationists are hoping to harness some of that passion for a different cause, forests.

[00:17:45]In June, the World Wildlife Fund launched a campaign called Team Forest to encourage football fans to help sustain life on Earth. And the stakes are pretty high. Forests absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide, help to regulate the climate, and provide food, fuel, and livelihoods for millions of people around the world. Yet, they continue to disappear at an alarming rate, driven in part by logging and agriculture.

[00:18:19]>> [music] >> So, can the world's biggest sport help raise awareness about one of the planet's biggest environmental challenges? I called up Dowdy [music] Smith, the global forest practice lead at WWF International. I saw the logo football belongs to all of us and so do our forests. It sounds as though the core message of this campaign is that no individual can win a match or protect nature on his or her own.

[00:18:45]>> Mhm.

[00:18:46]Yeah, uh you you know, we wanted to borrow from the analogy of the of football.

[00:18:53]Uh that football is a team sport.

[00:18:56]Uh and it also gives us an opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

[00:19:02]And it's in that team effort and that aspect of being bigger than ourselves that helps us to do something bigger.

[00:19:10]You know, uh that's from the player side. But, if you look at the um the the spectator's side, you know, just the thrill of being a part of something bigger than yourself, you know, helps you to, you know, carry the passion and the adrenaline forward and truly push for a cause that you cannot achieve on your own. And that's sort of the sensation we want to bring in with this campaign.

[00:19:35]>> So, so billions of people are following World Cup. What made the WWF think football fans might be the perfect, I guess, teammates in the fight to protect forests?

[00:19:47]>> I think for forests are important.

[00:19:49]They're essential for life. Okay. And and people need to understand that when forests are degraded, our lives become less rich, you know. We feel that football fans are particularly good in terms of social movements, because we can ride on the passion of football fans to really bring the same sort of drive to forest conservation and forest ownership.

[00:20:17]You will find many football fans who support a team they've never seen or they've never been to. But, they support it with all their lives, you know, because they believe in the value of that team.

[00:20:29]And we This is what we want to translate, you know, [music] with football fans. That forests are important. They're essential for life. They give us life support systems. Without them, the world is a much poorer place, a much a much more unsafe place, so to speak, from a well-being perspective.

[00:20:48]And we need your passion to come through so that together we can conserve forests.

[00:20:55]>> There's one statistic that says the global football industry generates around 64 to 66 million tons of CO2 equivalent annually, and the World Cup will only contribute negatively to that figure. Millions of people flew into the US to see the games. I mean the lifestyle of wealthy athletes seems to have a high carbon footprint. Is the WWF also attempting to influence the football industry's behavior through its campaign?

[00:21:24]>> You know, we would hope that it would be one of the byproducts of this. The first point for us here is just to attack the real cause. Forests are declining. We need a movement of supporters and key people who can engage to support forest conservation.

[00:21:40]But what you're talking about is how forests help us to address much bigger issues like climate change, you know, like emissions and and how then that message helps us to address issues like overconsumption and lifestyles, you know. I think for me that is a a secondary issue for us at this point. We just want to look at the natural stock first. And then we can maybe use that as a platform to begin then to talk about forests also play this role. And if you are being a good team member, we would expect you to make some adjustments to your living style, to your consumption, you know, so that together we can maximize on nature-based solutions to address the bigger questions of climate change.

[00:22:25]>> Now, campaigns generally succeed in raising awareness, I guess, but turning that into action is obviously a lot more challenging. How will the World Wildlife Fund measure whether Team Forest leads to actual change in forest conservation?

[00:22:41]>> So, we already have a lot of and you you ask a very important question, you know, you know, translating talk into action.

[00:22:49]We already have a lot of on-ground projects working on forests, whether it is in the Mekong forest or whether it is in the Congo Basin forest or the Amazon forest.

[00:22:59]And and many other forests across the world. I think in our local programming, we are able to you know, we're able to check whether engagement, global engagement is actually going up with forest conservation and forest support.

[00:23:14]What we have done with our our our campaign is to ask people to enroll on the WWF website at panda.org in Team Forest. Okay, so the more the engagement, you know, we we people registering, it gives us a sense of you know, what the social movement looks like. And we can be able to follow up on people to understand how well are they engaged beyond just registering.

[00:23:39]And we can check in our local programs to see whether engagement has in fact gone higher as a result of the registration. So we we we try to create a platform to help us do that.

[00:23:50]>> Uh finally, before I let you go, if Team Forest had a dressing room speech before kick-off, what's the one message you want every supporter around the world to hear?

[00:24:01]>> I would tell them it would just be the message that forests are essential for life.

[00:24:07]Our life depends on clean, healthy forests, okay? That the we experiencing as a world rapid decline of forests all over the world. What we need is a community of globally connected people who genuinely care about forests and are able to step up, bring forests into the cultural spotlight, and help galvanize community action and national action and international action towards forests so that we can save forests, which I believe are the lungs of the planet.

[00:24:44]>> Nawdy, thank you so much. It was nice meeting you and and good luck on this campaign.

[00:24:48]And that's our show for today. Until next time.

[00:24:51]Bye.

[00:24:52]>> One, two, three, action.

[00:25:01]>> [music] >> We're here in the forest to make a campaign for WWF International. So, it's a campaign around football and we want to link that sentiment to forest and to nature.

[00:25:20]>> Playing a game of football up in the canopy has never been done before.

[00:25:25]We have to figure out how do we get people to run up the trees to feel exciting.

[00:25:30]We have an incredible stunt team with us and we're going through the motions and trying different setups, trying different rigs.

[00:25:39]>> [music] >> Also, we are working in the middle of our forest and of course we do not want to disrupt it. We do not want to trample on it, but it's also at the same time our working [music] space.

[00:25:49]We're building scaffolding over the vegetation so we don't destroy it and we also keep it intact for shots. [music] >> So, this is my first time in a stunt harness, especially holding a camera while in a stunt harness.

[00:26:04]There's really an element of discovery in that.

[00:26:10]One of the biggest challenges we're up against so far is the speed at which the runners can go up the tree is limited based on the number of people pulling and the amount of room they have to maneuver.

[00:26:23]Want to work together with them to see what's possible within the safety setting, but also how can it serve the visual language of the story.

[00:26:33]>> Not bad. Not bad. Yeah.