The Dark Side of Sports: Sportswashing and Climate Change

We are in the midst of exciting seasons in soccer, American football, ice hockey and basketball, with sports fans all over the US and the world celebrating their favorite teams. It's easy to understand why competitive sports are so important to us - they are at the center of global culture. They bring people together, inspire us, elevate our lives, it is where we can find commonalities and formulate a sense of community.

Yet, as we embrace our excitement of sports it is important to acknowledge the darker side of the industry- it's called 'sportswashing'.

What is Sportswashing?

You may have heard of the term "greenwashing" - it refers to the practice of claiming a product or a company is environmentally conscious when in fact they are no such thing. The ugly cousin of "greenwashing"is "sportswashing".

What many fans don't realize is that billions of dollars are poured into sport sponsorships by fossil fuel companies with hidden agendas lurking behind the team brands we love so much. Today, oil and gas companies, and even national governments, use sports to greenwash their reputation.

Historically, this is nothing new But increasingly sportswashing has entangled itself in the political and economic world order too. Most commonly sport washing is about hiding a country or company's exploitation of the global environment and their role in advancing climate change. For example Aramco, Saudi Arabian oil company. Aramco is a major greenhouse gas emitter, in fact it has been estimated that it has released 68,832 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) between 1938 and 2022. By these numbers, if Aramco was an independent country, they would have the 5th largest emission globally.

Since 1965, Aramco has emitted 4% of the global GHG emissions, and 5% from 2016 to 2022. While Aramco shows little evidence of lessening their role in climate change, its efforts to paint themselves in a positive light to the public have ramped up. Aramco signed a contract with Formula 1 and 'invested' $495.7 million into this motorsports alone. More significantly, Aramco dedicated $757.6 million to football sponsorships, followed by several sponsorship deals in golf and cricket.

Why? Because it paints the company name in a positive light, associating itself with something that many of us love: sport. Their company name, signage and logos are normalised to the public in this way and we forget they are contributing to climate change on a global scale.

Aramco Are Not Alone

A 2024 report, entitled, Dirty Money: How Fossil Fuel Sponsors are Polluting Sport, found that, collectively, oil and gas companies have spent $5.6 billion- 205 deals - in this way. Three of the primary oil and gas companies-Amarco, TotalEnergies, and Shell-spent at least $1.3 billion, $777 million, and $470 million, respectively.

TotalEnergies is an energy and petroleum company, responsible for 17,584 MtCO2e from 1934 to 2022- putting it 19th in the global historical GHG emissions list. TotalEnergies also initiated the Vaca Muerta shale gas project in Argentina, for the EACOP pipeline, which led to the displacement of indigenous peoples in the region.

To help deflect from this reality they sponsored the Rugby World Cup of 2023 and backed a seven-year contract for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, amounting to $247 million. Additionally, they have poured money into badminton, cycling, and motorsports, specifically to promote their alleged green fuel developments.

Shell, known as one of the largest environmental polluters of all, released 40,674 MtCO2e from 1892 to 2022. Shell was the first corporation to be held liable for perpetuating climate change, enacted by the Dutch court in 2021. Not surprisingly Shell has a long history of throwing money into sports as a mechanism for greenwashing their brand's name. business.

Shell's sports deals include $65.2 million in motorsports, $28.3 million in American football, and $21.7 million in basketball.

Sportswashing of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

This past summer, France held the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The Olympic Games are placed on a global pedestal, serving as a moment of worldwide celebration.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), responsible for organizing the Games, pledged to generate a new phase of responsible sport and be more sustainable than all of the preceding modern era Games. They claimed to have reduced their overall GHG emissions, their energy consumption and vowed to utilise renewable energy resources. They set an ambitious goal of reducing their CO2 emissions by half, compared to the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games.

Furthermore, they committed to using 95% of existing or temporary infrastructure for the Olympic Village and Games sporting venues, rather than constructing brand new buildings. All of this sounds great but in retrospect, how sustainable and green were they? Then games were sponsored by Toyota - a global automotive manufacturing company and an industry that is a primary emitter of greenhouse gasses such as CO2.

Toyota agreed to provide 2,650 electrified vehicles for a 100% electric fleet for the Games, including 500 Toyota Mirai's. Toyota advertised the Mirai-a hydrogen fuel cell dependent vehicle-as a more sustainable alternative to conventional automobiles. Which all sounds fantastic except that the Mirai is only a small percentage of their total car sales. Within 2022, approximately 22,000 Toyota Mirai units were sold globally. While this may appear to be a significant sales figure, the issue lies in the sharp decline in Toyota Mirai sales since then and the comparison to fossil-fuel Toyota model sales. In 2023, 2,737 Mirai models were sold and within the beginning of 2024, only 245. In reality, Toyota remains a primarily fossil-fuel based company, intended to sell 110 million internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in 2024, all of which rely on fossil fuels and emit significant levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

This equates to the annual emissions of 2,000 coal plants. Toyota used the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to disguise their gas guzzling business in front of the general public at a time where environmental protection and responsibility should be at the forefront of business and governance.

The Future

Following the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, athletes have pushed for the removal of sportswashing schemes from the sporting industry.

A group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee-the President and all the Executive Board Members-urging them to rethink the effects of partnering with Toyota. These Olympic Champions emphasize the pre-existing environmental impacts on the athletes themselves when competing in the Games, including the high temperatures and poor air quality interfering with athlete's health and performance.

To tackle sportswashing, we need to push for stronger ethical standards in sports.

Institutions such as the International Olympic Committee should set rules that prioritize attracting sponsors with a proven commitment to sustainability and human rights. Athletes can also use their platform to speak out against companies involved in sportswashing, sending a clear message to both sponsors and fans that reject this dark art once and for all. If athletes, fans, and organizations collectively demand a sports industry that values integrity and transparency over profits, we can achieve a more sustainable future.

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