how do you feel getting this award? yeah, ifeel like it's a real privilege. i never set out to achieve awards from this. ijust wanted to raise awareness about, like, climate—related issues within the athletics and sporting world, trying to get up—and—coming athletes think about what they're doing, and their impacts on the climate as well. earlier this year, innes turned down the opportunity to compete in the cross country championships in australia because of the impact flying there would have on the environment. it was like, "well, i can go there and i might do really "well, but can ijustify, like, taking that flight with just "doing, like, one race, running for, like, minutes," which, obviously, would mean so much if i was to, like, do really well, but, like, the emissions from that flight is just so great, and ijust, at the time, couldn't justify it at all. ready? three, two, one, go. what was that conversation like with you? did she talk to you about it beforehand? yeah, we talk about it, and, obviously, it factors into what training we're doing if someone's going to be going, you know, peaking again, for another champs. and it's not a problem. if that's what innes wants to do, that's what we're doing. it's not like it's a major deal. when you're a junior, that's huge for you going to those champs. it's a massive sacrifice for innes. but in terms of development in the long term, it doesn't change anything. did you face any backlash at all to that? i mean, there's always someone. yeah. i was trying not to, like, get too down on reading, like, comments and stuff online, but i kind of, like, were thinking, "look, i've decided to do this." "i just need to stay strong and just believe in myself." although other people might be belittling my, kind of, decisions, but it's definitely really empowering when i get, like, messages from other people saying, "look, i'm so grateful for what you've done," or, like, "i'm now changing this in my life." gives me confidence that, actually, what i'm doing is making a bit of a difference. three, two, one, go. go. coach has said, "take a break, innes." innes has said, "no chance." i think it's really hard, especially for young people, knowing that there's an opportunity, and then being torn by it because, like innes has often said, she finds that the personal impact of the climate crisis upsets her. but she's also wanting to perform. she senses an opportunity to go there to win. and she's feeling conflicted. obviously, i would be so proud if she had been there, but then i was so proud with how the story caught on and the way in which it was portrayed and people thinking, "well, yeah, we do need to make a stance on this." the other side to that, i mean, there may have to come a time where you are going to have to go to these events. not necessarilyjust for the times on the track, which you are smashing, but soaking in that atmosphere, getting used to the whole process of it all, competing against the best across the world as well. yeah, no, definitely. obviously, i want to go as far as i can on the global stage and do as well as i can, but there might be sacrifices i have to make along the way. so is this a case where you're not necessarily saying that you wouldn't rule out flying or going to other places, but you just want to think long and hard about it? yeah, i don't want to make decisions now about what i'll do in the future. i think it willjust come with time. obviously, i'd love to go to world champs and the olympics one day, but i kind of want to make sure i think all the decisions i make through thoroughly. well done, guys. good job. the stance that innes has been taking, do you think that is rubbing off on other athletes or others she's trained with, in some way they look up to her? yeah, i think cos innes is fast, the youngsters just love her anyway. so whatever innes does, she's like their hero, i think. i really hope in the future there'll be more green decisions that are made, like, within the governing bodies. and i think it'sjust about working together, working with each other, working with different companies that can help provide greener and sustainable ways of doing things than just, like, the norm nowadays. i think i shouldn't feel restricted just because i want to speak out about the problems that we have. i feel like i should be able to balance that and do well in my running as well. well done, innes. you've been amazing on and off the track and you thoroughly deserve this green sports award, young athlete of the year 2023 from the bbc. thank you. well done. it's brilliant to see someone like innes at the start of her career taking a stand, and we hope she goes on to bigger and better things. but making a difference can happen at all levels of sports. i'm about to meet the winners of our next award for grassroots organisation of the year, and it's going to a group of people who are using football to help save the rhinos in southern africa. chanting matt, first of all, just tell us a little bit about the origins of the rhino champions league. the rhino cup champions league came from... ..how can we help... ..uh, stop young men... from going into the wildlife reserve to kill that animalfor profit? it's sometimes tempting to go into communities and say, "here's why you shouldn't kill a rhino." what we're doing with the rhino cup champions league is bringing something that people love... mm. ..football. where did the idea come from? it was their idea. that's why it's a success. we asked... "how can we help?" and their answer was, "football." every small african village has a football field. the passion and the skill was there. all we brought is the organisation of a proper league. boredom and idleness are two of the biggest reasons to become a poacher. these poachers don't like doing it. but, imagine. you have nothing else to do, and you make a lot of money. you know, people just want to live. and unfortunately, poaching is the most profitable thing right now... ..in the villages we operate in. but what we laugh about later is that the majority of people thought it was a operation... ..that we... wow. ..had our research and were bringing everybody to the soccer pitch to arrest people. how big of a problem was poaching in mozambique? so, when we started the rccl, there was about 100 young men each year getting arrested, getting killed, or simply disappearing, from these villages where we have the rhino cup champions league. now, since 2016, there's only been three. chanting in namibia, actually, last year, rhino poaching more than doubled. but zero, zero rhinos poached where we have the rhino cup champions league. it is keeping young men busy, giving them hope, and the whole community is gathering. and it's bringing love, compassion to the wildlife, because that's what's supporting this football league. but also, at the same time, you're educating people as well, aren't you? correct. and we have a mascot named davey, and davey is a rhino. all the kids at the games love to be around davey. and so it's just another entertainment source at the field why people come and bring their children. instead of sitting people down in rows and desks and saying, "here's why you shouldn't kill the rhino. "here's davey. have fun with him." children singing there's a lot of gender equality in this league as well, isn't there? the girls league, actually, is what i'm most excited about. currently we have 420 girls players. and we still do the same thing, pay for transportation, pay for refs...prize money. but we also... a sponsor, for instance, donated sports bras. so the girls league is growing, and it's something we want to really focus on now because it's making such an impact with these girls staying in school. how big do you think it can get? we want to be in the community's surrounding wildlife reserves. wildlife, local communities, football, that's our thing. the goal is to be the largest and most organised amateur football league for youth in africa. cheering from small beginnings, the rhino champions league is clearly making a big impact in those local communities, which is leading to environmental and social change. and here at bbc sport, we're playing our part as well. i'm just about to board the train to paris, the first leg of this journey to budapest. you might ask why i'm not at an airport, and that is because sustainability is becoming a bigger part of all our lives. so come with me. this weekend sees the first green football weekend taking place and being marked across the country. it's a balance between putting i on this amazing event that does so much good in so many ways, and balancing that| with the fact that there - is an environmental impact. i'd like to see people worry more about climate change. looking at the overall impact of these world championships, it's about, "what does that mean to life, to the world, to the way we live? we've got one of the few sports that's much more than a sport.| 81 domestic flights were taken by premier league clubs. now that time covers 100 matches. today is my day at wimbledon, but there is a twist. i'm going to do it as sustainably as i can. for world vegan day, _ bbc sports daniel raza has been spending time - with green gazelles. the lta have got this initiative over the grass court season about sustainability. you've been picking up litter today. i think it's very important - to educate people to take care of the environment. bbc sport is one of the many organisations using its profile to talk about the environmental issues which impact us all. and the winner of our elite organisation of the year award has been at the forefront of this campaign for many years. back in 2017, forest green rovers was named the greenest club in the world by fifa. and that was just the start of their journey. there are two ways to bring change to the world. the first is to do everything that you personally can as a person or as a football club. the second is to be a catalyst and cause lots of other people to change. we're100% powered by renewable energy. we've got solar panels on the roof of the stand. on the hill, we've got a big windmill. we capture the water underneath the pitch and we use it again. it's an organic pitch, which reduces chemical use. charging points for cars. we've got electric vehicles in the fleet. we've got no single—use plastic. we make our match day food, burgers, sausages, all from plants, all powered by the wind and the sun. we've done everything that we can around the ground. dale, thank you so much for your hospitality today. you mention all that so casually, yet there are so many clubs in football and all around the world that aren't cutting their carbon emissions. what do you make of that? well, i think it's mostly a psychological problem. there's a degree to which people just don't understand the issues. but then there's a kind of fear or mythology around going green. people think that it's difficult or it costs a lot of money, or even that fans won't like it. when we took the club vegan, there was a lot of concern around that. the loudest messages we got were that, actually, it would kill the club, that nobody would come, and if they did come, they wouldn't eat the food. we've disproven that completely. our crowd is four times bigger now. we sell ten times as much food as we did back then. and i think we've proven a really important thing, actually, that football fans are just like anybody else. and if you put the information in front of them, as we have, about the environment and stuff, our fans don't tolerate what we've done, they've embraced what we've done. what are some of the differences about being a player here in comparison to other clubs you've been at before? it's still a football club. everything's run...run the same. it's just the way they do it. and, like, for instance, the food we eat, how we travel, and things like that. for pre—season, we try to stay local. definitely think it opens your mind to it and makes you a lot more aware of the bigger picture. at first i was just obviously invested in football. - the times that i've been. here now, you learn more things, with, obviously, food, with the vegan stuff. - i know some lads actually change to a vegan diet. for injury purposes, you know, with knee problems and stuff, | and they actuallyl benefited from it. what do you make about the fact that the away fans, when they go to the toilet, what happens to all that waste, it's getting recycled onto the pitch to water the lawn and then you're doing your diving tackles and diving headers? that's it. we're swimming in it. yeah. no, i think it's brilliant. people actually can't i believe you can do it. yeah. but, again, forest greenj are obviously at the front of it, doing it. a different way. somebody tells me every game that it's changed their life. they're buying electric cars, solar panels — that kind of stuff. they're going veggie and vegan. they're changing how they live. richard, how long have you been a forest green rovers fan? been a season ticket holder with my son for about the last six, seven years. when the changes were first made, i think there was a bit of a kick back and a reaction. if i'm honest, the noise — certainly from the home supporters — just died down pretty quickly because people soon realised that the food was excellent. it's exposed me to different aspects of sustainability. this season, the boots i wear, they're recycled and made - from recycled materials so, like, i'm trying - to change little things in my game as well. l my son became vegan about 18 months ago. i challenged my wife and i to do veganuary back injanuary, which we did, and we've been vegan ever since. that's really interesting, cos your son is a forest green rovers fan, isn't he? that's his first team. forest green was our first exposure to vegan food. you know, it sort of influenced him, then, to want to take that further and be more curious. let's talk a little about the future. where do you go from here? well, we keep innovating. we're hoping to get an electric team bus in the next 12 months and we think maybe we can travel to half our away games next season by electric coach. we launched an electric airline, actually, a couple of months ago — i mean, one day, we might even fly to a game. give us about three years. but other than that, we've got a new location plant and we call it eco park — a stadium made entirely out of wood. we'll have the lowest carbon footprint stadium anywhere in the world. are you proud of being at forest green rovers? 100%. and obviously, me being a local boy, it makes it sweeter. - it isjust a village club that is punching way above its weight, not just in football terms, but also in terms of its global reach. for as long as i can remember, forest green rovers have been the greenest football club in the world. how would you feel if one day another club overtook you to take that title? chuckles. i'd feel pretty good about that, actually. you know, i'd welcome it. dale and the whole team at forest green rovers are doing something really special here and hopefully they can be an example for other clubs around the world to follow their lead. but it can sometimes be a lonely and difficult fight as the winner of our lifetime achievement evergreen award can attest to. chris dickerson was a professional baseball player and has spent most of his career trying to make changes in his sport. do i need headphones? no, i don't think you do, pal. you look cool anyway — it'd ruin your look, so... chris, i want to take you back to the start. where did your interest in the environment come from? really, it started growing up in southern california. i mean, if you want to talk about a certain place that encompasses all our failures, it's california. habitat loss, overpopulation, water pollution, air pollution — it's all here. but it wasn't till later that i really started to put the pieces together and look back and understood why my, you know, i had team—mates on soccer teams and baseball teams that couldn't show up to practice because of poor air quality and they had asthma. did you ever have that sort of moment of realisation where you thought, "actually, do you know, "i can see the change?" i think, maybe, what you're talking about, that a—ha moment, is sitting in the locker room and just kind of looking around and seeing the amount of plastic that we use in professional sports. you know, looking to the side and seeing a 50—gallon trash can full of single—use plastic while reading an article saying that plastic stays in the environment for 1,000 years. that was my a—ha moment. and ifelt, like, "if i can make a change and see how "we can cut down on plastic, maybe through the use "of reusable water bottles, then let's do it." we're down here to clean up the beach, connect with the community and inspire lasting change in the way that we use plastic. this is where it all starts. this beach clean—up represents something bigger than baseball. let's talk a little bit about players for the planet, then. what were you trying to — or hoping to achieve with that organisation in the first instance? i was just hoping to just, kind of, be an example and just be a beacon of support for what was happening with the environment. every day, we show up to a ballpark and we have a captive audience of 40,000 fans and that's an opportunity for athletes to step up and be examples of best practices. you know, wearing the green shoelaces just to bring awareness to issues facing our climate, using my reusable water bottle, biking to the stadium. you can make an announcement — "hey, please go return your beer cup to the front." "please take your recycling. sports are so powerful. how have you seen that grow, that expand over the years to where you're at now? we have — started with 18 athletes in 2008 and we have, you know, over 275, and these athletes are really starting to use their voice and utilising these social platforms for good, and i think that's been the biggest change. to get athletes down to the dominican republic, getting them involved in beach clean—ups — the young players see that, they become major leaguers, they take that influence and those best practices and now, they're in the spotlight, inspiring more young people in their country and in their sports market. would you like to see those big names do more? yeah, 100%. i always joke and say climate change can be solved if messi and ronaldo both came out and said, "hey, let's "save the environment." you would see a massive, massive change. there are so many messages that they can use on their platform that would change — that i honestly feel like would change the tide. but that's the power of sport and those two have it and hopefully, we continue to have more of these top world, world superstars that can join the climate action fight. chris, honestly, congratulations. what you're doing — incredibly inspirational. really, really fortunate to talk to you and thank you so much for your time. i appreciate it, honoured for the award, and it's great being — having this chat, these meaningful chats, to move progress forward and again, i truly appreciate it. chris has dedicated his whole career to making a difference and is a worthy recipient of the evergreen award. congratulations to him and his organisation players for the planet. so, time for ourfinalaward — athlete of the year. and it goes to one of the players at the very top of world cricket, pat cummins, who is using his role as the australian captain to promote change both at the grassroots level back at home and also to impact the wider global game as well. commentator: cummins runs in determinedly down _ the hill, bowls... he's edged it, and it's caught! cummins over the wicket, bowls... and root's edged it! he's bowled him! pat, when did your interest in the environment begin? growing up in australia, you spent a lot of time outside, beaches like this, so i guess i've always had a bit of an interest. it's probably not until the last three or four years that i've really thought a bit more deeply about my personal impact on the planet. i think, firstly, cricket, we play, sometimes, in really extreme weather. we've had games where it's been called off due to bushfire in the middle of summer. any drop of rain or drop in temperature, the conditions change or you can't play at all. and then, the nature of international cricket — you travel around a lot, around the world, you see lots of different places. you have quite a high carbon footprint yourself. so, it'sjust, it's always front of mind. but with that's huge opportunity as well. there's so many stakeholders, so many people that look to a sport like cricket for leadership in this space. it's something that brings a lot of people together. tell us why you set up cricket for climate. i think number one was i was trying to think of something where i could lighten my footprint. solar for your house, electric car — all those kind of things in my own life. but i was trying to see where i could make a bit of a difference in the community, particularly in the cricket community so, yeah, thought of the idea, initially, of pulling solar panels on my home cricket club and it's kind of gone from there. we want to make a big difference, decarbonising as many clubs around australia as we can. there's loads of other initiatives through every stakeholder of cricket. from the professional level, you've got stadiums, you've got sponsors, you've got travel, right down to the grassroots. and also, i think the education piece is a big one. i'd love for every professional athlete or person, really, to be armed with some really good knowledge around their space and solutions that they can introduce everyday to their lives. yeah, there's over a billion cricket fans around the world, so there's huge opportunity to make real change there. are you thinking of some sort of billion—strong cricket climate army? big scale. so, yeah, that would be awesome. have you run into any dissent or opposition within the cricket community or the broader community? i think you'll always run into people who are looking for an argument or want it not to be real. but that's ok. you know, hopefully we can show a path forward. i think that's really important. a lot of people just throw their arms up and think, "oh, it's all too hard." but through action, we can demonstrate that there are some things that can make a difference. in a few days�* time, you fly to south africa, then fly on to the world cup in india. there's a lot of flying there. how do you square that with your environmental concerns? yeah, you know, flying or a lot of things we do is, unfortunately, a side effect of ourjob. no—one�*s ever going to be perfect but i think everyone could do something a little bit different in their life that might make a big difference. solar panels in your house, switching away from gas, you know, getting an electric car that's powered by renewable sources — these are significant differences you can do in your life. do you get the sense that australia and other developing countries are moving fast enough? i think we could always move faster, and i think it's up to us to show that this is important to us. there's a lot of these solutions that we can do today and there's no point waiting to get started. our athlete of the year pat cummins really sums up what the bbc green sport awards are all about. he's not afraid to speak out, he's authentic and most importantly, he's making significant change. congratulations to all of our winners. five brilliant individuals and organisations who have put saving the planet at the heart of everything they do. be it protecting the rhinos, standing up to climate change and flight emissions, leading the way as a sustainable sports club, orjust using your profile to get people talking about the issues that impact us all. but there is still so much work to do. thanks forjoining us. hello again. the weekend started off on quite a wet and a windy footing, thanks to storm elin. it did bring some heavy rain. we have still a number of flood warnings in force. a bit of localised flooding here on this picture in lancashire. now, the strongest winds from elin came through during saturday evening, just to the south of the centre of the low pressure. the strongest winds recorded at capel curig in north—west wales — 80mph gusts here. not far behind that, western cumbria's coastline got hit with a gust of 74mph at st bees head. now, the low pressure is now working out into the north sea, and pretty quickly, we are seeing those winds die back down. still a bit of patchy rain to come through northern england and scotland. otherwise, the weather will become dry with some clear spells for most and not that cold a night — temperatures typically around 5—7 but down to about two degrees celsius in the colder spots in northern ireland. now, for northern ireland, england and wales, it should be a fine and sunny start to the day but quickly, cloud and rain will spread into northern ireland and this band of rain will then extend across england and wales. "rain at times" probably best summing up the weather in scotland. the rain bands are all associated with an area of low pressure that's over the republic of ireland, and that has been named as a new storm — storm fergus. it will be a mild day. temperatures for most 10—14 degrees but a bit cooler in scotland with temperatures stuck at around 7 or 8 here. we get some strong winds, then, working across wales during sunday night. gusts could reach around 60—odd mph around western coasts. and the remains of that area of low pressure still with us on monday, bringing cloud and patchy rain to start off the day, although the weather should improve as we head into the afternoon with most of us having drier weather with some breaks in the cloud, a bit of sunshine coming through. it continues to be on the mild side — for most, temperatures around 9—13 degrees but again in scotland, still looking a little bit colder — looking at around 6—8 degrees celsius here. through tuesday and wednesday, another area of low pressure crosses the country. once that's out of the way, we'll start to see pressure build from the southwest and that will really herald something of a more significant change in our weather patterns. so, still a bit more rain to come through during tuesday and wednesday. still relatively mild. then, we get a dip in temperatures later in the week. high pressure then takes over with the weather there settling down, becoming drier and sunnier. live from washington, this is bbc news. warnings that half the population of gaza is now starving. the un says conditions on the ground make it almost impossible to deliver aid. the us state department approves the potential sale of tank shells to israel, bypassing the usual congressional review. and as washington debates further aid to ukraine, we speak exclusively to ukraine's first lady about her fears over future western assistance. hello, i'm helena humphries. good to be with you. the un says half of gaza's population is starving as israel's bombardment continues. the world food programme's deputy director says 9 out of 10 people cannot eat every day. israel says it's doing everything it can to get more aid in, but conditions on the ground are making it almost impossible for aid groups to reach gaza. unicef�*s spokeswoman alexandra murdoch has more on the situation. by all the measures that you can think of, the situation for people in gaza is beyond crisis point. food is running out as you have reported, there is a severe lack of safe water, safe drinking water and this poses a particularly lethal threat to children. people are sleeping outside on concrete floors. 80% of the population are displaced, almost1 million