Sweat not oil: why sports should drop advertising from high carbon polluters

The global sports industry was worth an estimated $471 billion in 2018. Corporate sponsorship in sport is a multi-million dollar business but do we really know where the money is coming from? A new report out today from the New Weather Institute, Possible and the Rapid Transition Alliance for the Badvertising campaign, identifies advertising and sponsorship deals with major polluters across 13 different sports, including football, cricket and tennis, to major events such as the Olympics. This is despite moves in the last year by the sports industry to reduce their carbon emissions and play a bigger role in tackling the climate crisis.

The main findings of the report are:

• The report found a total of 258 sports sponsorship deals in various countries with companies promoting high-carbon products, services and lifestyles
• These deals ranged across 13 different sports categories: football, american football, cricket, the Olympics, tennis, sailing, cycling, athletics, basketball, rugby, golf and motorsport.
• Over 10 different sports categories are listed: clubs, teams, associations, leagues, federations, races, championships, tours, tournaments, and stadiums.
• By sport: football is the most targeted by advertising with 57 high-carbon sponsorship deals.
• By sector: the auto industry is the biggest sponsor numerically with 199 deals. Airlines come second with 63 sports partnerships. The high profile fossil fuel companies Gazprom and Ineos are also prominent.
• By company: the carmaker Toyota is the largest sponsor – 31 deals identified – followed closely by the airline Emirates with 29 partnerships.