A recent report highlights the facts about Aramco, a company owned by the Saudi government. This company is the biggest spender on sports sponsorship in the faucet fuel industry, with $1.3 billion in deals. Saudi Arabia, a nation that prioritizes its interests, is using it to improve its image on the global stage and ignores the damage it causes to the environment. Some other companies are also involved, but Aramco is the leader. The names of different organizations are Ineos, TotalEnergies, and Shell.
Aramco is one of the major carbon emitters. Since 1965, it has caused over 4% of the world’s carbon emissions. These emissions damage the environment and significantly change the climate. Despite this, it spends over $300 million a year sponsoring sports like motorsports, soccer, golf, and cricket. Saudi Arabia covered up its environmental impact by utilizing these deals. The nation follows the same strategy as Big Tobacco, which made efforts to improve its image in the past without changing its harmful activities.
The report highlights that fossil fuel organizations have signed 205 sponsorship deals. The total costs of these deals are $5.6 billion. Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute (NWI); these companies are acting like they care about the sport, and are delaying climate action. This tactic is the same as tobacco companies once operated.
The report emphasizes that these companies not only negatively impact on environment but also public health. Millions of deaths happen each year due to the burning of fossil fuels, which results in air pollution. This pollution is also linked with climate change that threatens the future of players, fans, and significant events such as the Winter Olympics and World Cups.
Simms argues that for sports to have a bright future, they must cut ties with polluting companies. To protect themselves and the planet, sports organizations should refuse dirty money and avoid actions that contribute to their destruction.
The term sportwashing has a clear meaning. It describes how some nations use sports as a cover to distract from serious complications, the same as greenwashing and whitewashing. In recent years, this idea gained much popularity, especially when talking about Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
In the past 3 years, Saudi Arabia has spent a huge amount on its LIV Golf tour, approximately $2 billion. The nation used this money from its oil company Aramco. Additionally, Saudi Arabia will also be the host nation of the World Cup in 2034, following Qatar, which spent more than $200 billion to host the event in 2022.
This nation is also at the top of the list for greenwashing. It is trying to improve its image due to poor environmental record. Saudi Arabia also faces criticism for human rights violations.
One of the US journalists, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed in Saudi Arabia in 2018. This murder raised awareness of its authoritarian government and its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. These issues challenge Saudi Arabia’s attempts to reshape its global image through sports.
Saudi leaders have responded to mounting accusations of sportswashing with directness and without apology. In a noteworthy statement, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that sportswashing would continue if it helped boost the nation’s GDP by 1%. This claim makes it apparent that financial gains are prioritized over moral considerations.
The noteworthy sponsorship efforts of three prominent Western fossil fuel businesses are highlighted in the New Weather Institute (NWI) study. Based in the United Kingdom, Shell and Ineos spend more than $100 million annually on several sports sponsorships. The French business TotalEnergies also spends over $60 million a year.
The NWI advises sports organizations to enact stringent regulations like those prohibiting tobacco sponsorship to help solve the moral dilemmas raised by these partnerships. To make sure that sports organizations are aware of the moral ramifications of their financing sources, they recommend enhancing monitoring and responsibility for sponsors and contributors. This would encourage accountability and openness in the sports sector.