The massive presence of companies linked to fossil fuels among the sponsors of major sporting events shows that these giants have made sport their favorite playground.
The airline Emirates, the car manufacturer Land Rover, the oil group TotalEnergies… The 2023 Rugby World Cup, which opened on September 8 in France, brings together 13 sponsors, some of which have a strong impact on the climate . The presence of TotalEnergies, which still invests massively in fossil fuels, is also controversial. In a video where the Stade de France is covered in oil, Greenpeace denounces the “climate-killing partnership” with the oil group, which “sponsors sporting events to improve its image”.
If the French multinational denies the accusations of “ greenwashing and highlights its “long tradition of partnership with rugby”the France 2023 organizing committee recognized in a press release “ the importance of the debate on the sponsorship of international sporting events” and the necessity “to define sustainable organizational models”. Wishful thinking? The massive presence of polluting companies – the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) is the main contributor to climate change – shows that there is still a long way to go as these giants have made sport their favorite playground.
From “greenwashing” to “sportwashing”
A study published in 2021 by the New Weather Institute think tank revealed that more than 250 sponsorship contracts had been signed between companies that emit high amounts of CO2. – fossil fuel companies, airlines and car manufacturers – and the biggest clubs, organizations and events in 13 sports across many countries. According to the New Weather Institute, 64% of the sponsorship budget of automobile manufacturers is devoted to sport.
One of the authors of the study, Andrew Simms, develops the concept of “sportwashing”, a process by which a company uses sport as a means of improving its reputation. “These highly polluting industries sponsor sports to appear as friends of healthy activity when in reality they are releasing deadly pollution into the air that athletes must breathe, and destroy the climate on which sport depends.”
According to David Roizen, expert associated with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and specialist in sports-related issues, these companies “ claim the values of sport, team spirit, solidarity, effort, and those who have a bad image and things to be forgiven for, this is the opportunity to address a reluctant population” .
“Sport is an extraordinary lever, a paragon of virtues and these companies which have a harmful effect on the planet use it like a laundress.”
David Roizen, specialist in sports issuesat franceinfo
For Edina Ifticène, responsible for campaigns dedicated to fossil fuels at Greenpeace France, oil groups like TotalEnergies “are increasingly developing these partnerships to work on their social acceptability”. “The oil and gas industry has an extremely bad image, especially among young people, and it is forced to show its credentials”she judges.
Brands banned from advertising?
Major sporting events, which are broadcast on television on free-to-air channels, benefit from immense visibility. In 2022, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar achieved the seven best audiences of the year. And the final lost by the Blues against Argentina brought together more than 24 million viewers, the best audience in the history of French television. “Sport is one of the only moments of non-divisive collective encounter. When do we bring millions of people together in a positive way?” asks David Roizen.
Is this why TotalEnergies tried to partner with the Olympic Games? The multinational, which wanted to sponsor Paris 2024, gave up after opposition from the mayor of the capital. Anne Hidalgo did not want to associate these Games presented as environmentally friendly with TotalEnergies. “She needed to demonstrate her authority in relation to Tony Estanguet [président du comité d’organisation ] and Total was the perfect scapegoat, a way to show a virtuous image”while other companies like Air France or ArcelorMittal sponsor the Games, notes David Roizen.
In the United Kingdom, where many arts institutions have already stopped collaborating with oil and gas giants, some are calling outright for banning large polluting companies from advertising or sponsoring major events. The New Weather Institute think tank therefore proposes “ put an end to these contracts with highly polluting industries for the same reasons as was done a few years ago with the tobacco industry: for people’s health, for sport and for the planet.”.
In France, this question arose in 2021 in discussions around the Climate law, the result of proposals from the Citizens’ Convention on the same subject. The former environmentalist deputy Matthieu Orphelin had presented, in vain, a proposal for an “Evin Climat Law” aimed at banning the advertising of certain polluting brands, based on the model of the Evin law, which prohibits “any direct or indirect propaganda or advertising in favor of tobacco” since 1991.
Article 7 of the law of August 22, 2021 finally adopted only prohibits “advertising relating to the marketing or promotion of fossil fuels”a measure that does not concern sports sponsorship or sponsorship.
“The Evin law on alcohol was controversial at the time, but who today would want to go back? Can a sporting event have any sponsor like 10 or 15 years ago? I do not believe.”
Matthieu Orphelin, former deputyat franceinfo
The former MP, who converted to consulting after leaving politics, regrets that there are not more “political will of those who make the laws to move forward on these subjects”. “I was accused of wanting to bring down the world of advertising, it was anything but that. We need more consistency”he pleads. “The question is eminently political, it is not the sponsors who will give up the goose that lays the golden eggs under popular pressure.
Polluting events too
The question of the choice of sponsors is also part of “a race for the gigantism of sporting events”observes David Roizen.
“The bigger it is, the more people there are and the more expensive it is. And all that encourages these companies which are the most powerful on Earth to invest.”
David Roizen, specialist in sports issuesat franceinfo
According to our information, TotalEnergies has invested several tens of millions of euros to partner with the Rugby World Cup. And she was ready to sign a check for more than 100 million euros for the Olympic Games.
Does rethinking the way in which polluting companies appropriate sporting events involve rethinking the organization of sport? “Inexorably, we will be forced to organize differently in the future,” thinks Matthieu Orphelin. For David Blough, author of Sportwashing: what has become of the values of sport?, “these major sporting events are by definition polluting machines”. He judges that the world of sport “is not permeable” to global warming and that one day we will have to ask ourselves the question “the sport we want in our society”.
Can the surge come from athletes? The recent partnership of the legendary Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc with the car manufacturer Dacia, whose name is now associated with the race organized at the beginning of September, was widely criticized within the French and international trail community. Several professional trail runners accused the event of “greenwashing” and threatened to boycott the race. The British Andy Symonds is one of them: “We are not Ronaldo or Messi, but trail runners have the power to influence people and must be exemplaryhe explains. The UTMB is run as close as possible to glaciers and a deteriorating environment.” And the athlete concludes: “That he joins forces with Dacia is the start of a slippery slope, the choice of money rather than values.”