Fossil fuel industry investments in sports it reaches 5.6 billion dollarsaccording to the independent think tank New Weather Institute.
The published report speaks of sportswashingor how the fossil fuel industry Clean up your image using sportuses former Australian rules football captain Craig Foster’s thought-provoking statements that it is time to ask “uncomfortable questions” about the sponsors who threaten the future of the sport.
Oil and gas
«The fact that Paris has created a fossil fuel-free Olympic Games shows that there is no need for other sports accept a poisoned chalice from oil and gas sponsors», says Imogen Grant, Paris 2024 Olympic champion and two-time Olympian for the British team.
“Any short-term financial gain is simply not worth it, when we can see the devastating effects occurring in communities around the worldin grassroots sport and in sport in general,” adds Grant in reference to the sportswashing or sports whitening.
Ecopostureo either greenwashing
This issue of ecopostureo links with the decision of the plenary session of the European Parliament that gave the green light by a large majority to the law that requires evidence of green claims and will prohibit ecopostureo to protect consumers from misleading advertising and early product obsolescence.
In this way the European Parliament, after the approval of the text called Empowering consumers for the ecological transition, The prohibition extends to what is also called ecological laundering, eco-impostureeither greenwashing.
Following the agreement reached with the Council and the European Commission last September, this directive has already come into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Recently, the Animal Welfare Observatory (OBA) challenged the Lidl supermarket chain to demonstrate its commitment to “healthy eating” as a sponsor of the Euro Cup on the occasion of the competition this summer.
According to the NGO, “the sponsorship of the Euro Cup by Lidl hides a case of sportwashinga facelift for give a healthy image to the supermarket chain that does not translate into the meat they sell.
Climate action
Continuing with the New Weather Institute report, its co-director, Andrew Simms, states that “oil companies, which they are delaying climate action and adding more fuel to the fire of global warming, they are using the old manual of big tobacco and trying to pass themselves off as sponsors of sport,” he explained.
“But air pollution from fossil fuels and the extreme weather of a warming world threaten the very future of athletesfans and events ranging from the Winter Olympics to the World Cups. If sport is to have a future, it needs to cleanse itself of the dirty money of big polluters and stop promoting its own destruction,” Simms asserts.
5.6 billion dollars
The Weather Institute’s new report titled Dirty Money – How Fossil Fuel Sponsors are Polluting Sport (Dirty money: how fossil fuel sponsors are polluting sport), reveals that major oil and gas companies are spending at least $5.6 billion on global sport sponsorship across 205 active deals.
The study finds that the high-profile sports with the most deals are football, motorsport, rugby and golf, with key sponsors such as Aramco (1.3 billion dollars), Shell (470 million dollars), TotalEnergies ($340 million) and the petrochemical giant Ineos ($777 million).
The results are known a few days before the UN Future Summit to be held at the end of this month. According to New Weather, “work on fossil fuel sponsorship in sport through his campaign Badvertising “It has already contributed to changing the debate and questioning the acceptability of oil and gas money in sport at a time of climate crisis.” He adds that “this report shows the enormous scale of the problem and the urgent need to clean up the world of sports sponsorship.”
Brisbane Olympics
With the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in Brisbane, the former Australian football captain concludes that “sport has always been an engine of change and a positive force. This is our opportunity to drive partnerships that reflect the values of respect, excellence and integrity that must be at the heart of sport – and to draw a clear line for a sustainable world.. Fossil fuel sponsors have no place in sport. Not if we want to guarantee a future in which sport continues to exist.
UN climatologists are clear that Fossil fuels are responsible for 90% of carbon dioxide emissions that are causing the deadly climate impacts we are experiencing
we are seeing all over the world.
This year, as global temperatures and ecological crises spread across countries like Kenia, Brazil, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and it is essential to question the sponsorship of fossil fuels and their impact on climate change, vulnerable populations and the
the future of sport.
