Closed golf courses. Cancelled football and rugby matches. Stadiums lost to the sea. No regular winter sports.

As world leaders try to find solutions at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow this week, BBC Scotland examines sport’s relationship with climate change in this country.

How will sport be affected?

It’s pretty simple, really. If carbon emissions continue at the same rate the earth’s temperature will keep rising, which will bring more extreme weather to Scotland.

This threatens all outdoor sports, whether through cancellations due to waterlogged pitches or the safety of athletes and spectators amid storms, heatwaves and flooding.

And while forecasts from scientists expect these extreme weather events to get worse, the impact of climate change is already being harshly felt.

Scotland’s world-famous links golf courses are under threat due to rapid coastal erosion accelerated by climate change, and with sea-level rises also predicted to increase, their very existence is precarious.

Montrose Golf Club – the fifth oldest course in the world – has lost three metres to the sea in the last year alone, and has been forced to relocate tees regularly due to the encroaching tide.

“We’re talking about sea level increases of about 40cm over the next few years,” says John Adams, greens convenor at the 459-year-old course.

“We’ve got weak areas in the dunes so if we get a high tide we’re in trouble. The maths have been done, and that’s based on normal circumstances.

“If we get a 50-year storm it would get serious, not just for the golf course but for Montrose as well.”

Football clubs such as Arbroath – whose Gayfield ground is the closest to the sea in the UK – will also be affected by rising sea levels.

Meanwhile, snowsports are also facing near extinction in their current form. A report commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprise predicts a decline in snowfall in the next 20 years on one of Scotland’s main winter resorts, Cairngorm mountain.

This is the logical conclusion of rising temperatures, with shorter winter seasons already having an impact on resorts, with artificial snowmaking – in itself an often damaging process – now common place.

What is sport’s impact on climate change?

Sport does not exist in a bubble. So not only is climate change something which will radically affect sport, but sport also impacts on the climate.

Whether its flying to international events or building facilities, sport leaves its own carbon footprint in lots of ways, but the main one comes from us going to watch sport.

“Most crucially, 70% of the carbon footprint of large-scale professional sporting events is us going to those events in stadiums, locked into super carbon intense transport systems,” says David Goldblatt, author and chair of Football for Future, a charity which encourages sustainability in football in the UK.

“Let’s consider the size of the global sports industry. It’s somewhere between 500bn and 700bn dollars a year, which makes it around 0.6 to 0.8% of global GDP – which is [similar to] Poland or Spain, so not an inconsiderable contribution.”

Is sport trying to help?

Amongst governing bodies and clubs, there is plenty of good work being done to ensure sports operate in a more sustainable way in Scotland.

The R&A, which is responsible for running golf outside of the United States and Mexico, has invested in sustainability and launched its ‘Golf Course 2030’ project. It aims to educate those within the sport about the impacts of climate change, and also invest in research to provide some solutions.

They banned single-use plastic bottles at the the Open Championship in 2019 and are working towards making their flagship event carbon neutral, having utilised electric vehicles and encouraged spectators to donate to tree-planting projects at this year’s event.

“The discussion on climate change is paramount for us and we know across all sports there’s more attention being paid to how sports are going to be impacted,” says Philip Russell, Assistant Director Sustainability at the R&A.

“We’re driving, helping and supporting research and innovation which can bring practical solutions to the table to help facilities become more resilient and ultimately secure its future.”

Football is by far Scotland’s most popular sport and – at the elite level – Hibernian and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are two of the clubs leading the way.

Following in the footsteps of Forest Green Rovers in England, Hibs have a project to be the ‘Greenest club in Scotland’, by sourcing their energy from renewables, recycling matchday waste, and more.

They are the only sports organisation in Scotland signed up to the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework and were named in the top three most sustainable clubs in Britain.

Whether it’s introducing bees to their training complex, or harvesting rainwater, the club believes it has a responsibility to keep introducing more environmentally friendly practices.

“We’re trying to be a completely sustainable company,” says finance director Chris Gaunt. “That’s by getting 100% green contracts, changing the lighting to LED, putting solar panels on the roof, being more vegan within the stadium, and taking our fleet and making it a completely electric car fleet.

“We see ourselves as custodians of this club and we want this club to be around for the next 100 years.”

Inverness use a biomass boiler, have installed electric car charging ports, and are working with a company to reduce traffic in the Highlands, as well as with the local authority to have a cycle path out the their stadium.

“Football is a powerful tool to promote good practice,” chief executive Scot Gardiner told BBC Scotland. “A club can help make a big difference – more than a business 10 times our size because of the PR clout we have.”

But is it enough?

Some clubs and organisations are doing their bit, but overall there is a lack of a joined up approach in Scotland on taking action now to limit the damage of climate change.

“If sport’s going to make the difference it’s got to make the difference now,” Goldblatt explains.

“We need to see federations moving much much faster on these commitments and beginning the process of encouraging and pressuring the institutions below them in the pyramid to get cracking.”

At Montrose Golf Club, Adams says the course has been in “managed retreat” for years with “no plan” to save it.

“You might get 10, 15, 20 years out of it,” he says. “But when you’ve got the club looking to invest a few hundred thousand in developing their new clubhouse, what chance have they got? They’ve got to make a decision.

“It’s the long-term sustainable stuff we need. We’ve got to think about what we can do offshore here to stop those waves hitting the bottom of the dunes.

“We’ve been talking about a sand engine offshore which would dissipate the waves. That’s one solution which would probably work, but there has to be a will to make it work.”

In football, the Scottish FA and SPFL have set carbon reduction targets and are committed to doing more to cut their own emissions at the national stadium, Hampden Park.

The Scottish FA published a sustainability document five years ago encouraging clubs to invest in renewable energy sources and other sustainable practices.

They teamed up with Zero Waste Scotland to provide funding and loans for clubs to do so, as well as have the government-funded organisation assess clubs’ carbon emissions and identify areas where they could improve.

However, uptake has been low so far as football only begins the process of becoming more sustainable.

Like many other industries and individuals, sport is still grappling with the issue of climate change and most are just coming to realise the scale of the challenge ahead.

However, with its wide appeal sport is in a unique position to lead and influence others.

Dr Rachel Gavey works with some sports organisations to help them understand how they can reduce their carbon footprint.

“If one sport can do something that impacts the way their members behave, understand something, that’s a huge thing,” she says.

“I see that as a really big opportunity. That’s not something that is a huge cost for the sport, it’s about using the amazing resource of the people they have who they talk to and communicate with on a daily basis.”