Dirty Money: How Fossil Fuel Sponsors are Polluting Sport

This report by New Weather Institue looks in detail at the growing role of Middle Eastern oil states and the sport sponsorship activities of four fossil fuel companies in particular: Saudi Aramco, TotalEnergies, Shell and petrochemical giant Ineos.

Sport is increasingly one of the areas oil and gas companies are using to greenwash their reputation, betting billions on sponsorships that allow them to paint themselves as public-spirited, generous corporations. Sport's universality is being used to legitimise expansion of international megatournaments rather than to stimulate necessary conversations about how to cut emissions and address the climate crisis

The findings in this report suggest that a combination of state-owned and private fossil fuel companies are spending at least $5.6 billion on sponsorship of global sport across 205 active deals.

New Weather Institute recommends sport institutions adopt the following measures:

1. Introduce tobacco-style bans on sponsorship from fossil fuel companies.
2. Actively seek and encourage more sustainable sources of funding in sports sponsorship.
3. Require full transparency on sponsors’ emissions data and measures undertaken to reduce emissions (both direct and indirect), and that these be compatible with science-based international climate targets.
4. Carry out due diligence on any potential donor’s record on climate change, screening out contributions from those not in line with Paris Agreement goals.
5. Embed sponsorship agreements into Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies.