A group of campaigners and academics has called on World Sailingโs governing body to oppose US chemical giant INEOSโ sponsorship of the UKโs Americaโs Cup team due to the companyโs fracking activity. An open letter to the body, delivered to World Sailing’s London headquarters today, says the sponsorship deal goes against the โenvironmentally aware behaviourโ that organsiation โclaims to embody andย promoteโ.
INEOS describes itself as โthe biggest player in the UK shale gas industryโ. It has licenses to explore for shale gas that cover more than one million acres of the UK.
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It is also the owner a chemicals complex in Grangemouth, Scotland, which has been subject to numerous industrial disputes and dominates a list of Scotlandโs top 20 polluters. INEOS wants to use the fracked gas as an energy supply for its plasticย production.
The company is sponsoring the UKโs entrant into the Americaโs Cup, a high-profile sailing competition that claims to be the worldโs oldest sporting competition. The UKโs team is being led by British Olympic legend, Sir Ben Ainslie.INEOS has been a controversial presence in the UK. In April 2017, the company was accused of seeking to exploit Brexit to lobby for a weakening of the UKโs environmentalย regulations.
It has also taken out wide-ranging injunctions against fracking protestors, which campaigners have called โdraconianโ. Its argument for the injunctions was in part based on mass social media surveillance of campaigners, DeSmog UKย revealed.
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INEOS is owned by American billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who has ย described shale gas as a โsaviourโ of the UK economy. He is known for his aggressive pursuit of industrial assets in the UK, including the Grangemouth petrochemical plant and refinery, Forties pipeline, and fracking licenses.
On hearing that Ratcliffeโs INEOS was set to purchase the Forties pipeline from BP, an industry insider told Scotlandโs Daily Record:
โHoly sh*t. This would be like giving a monkey a machete โฆ Letting Jim Ratcliffe loose on all the operators who feed into that pipeline is a dangerous, dangerousย ploy.โ
In 2013, He forced the closure of the Grangemouth refinery in 2013 after a dispute with trade unions over working conditions and pensionย payments.
Todayโs letter, organised by campaign group Talk Fracking, calls on World Sailing to break its silence regarding INEOSโ sponsorship, saying the competition should not be associated with a company โknown for its environmentally destructive practices and ongoing assault on the democratic right to protestโ.
The letter also notes the incompatibility of INEOSโ sponsorship with World Sailingโs commitment to address the crisis of plastics polluting the ocean. โIn the absence of urgent action against INEOS Team UK, your current contribution actively undermines these same valuesโ, itย says.
Image: Joe Corre at the letter handover outside World Sailing headquarters in London. Credit:ย Kiย Price
Talk Fracking boss Joe Corrรฉ said that INEOS had the potential to make โa vast contribution to the already growing pile of cheap plastics in the worldย today.โ
โINEOS have a horrendous environmental track record in Europe and have been responsible for toxic chemicals, leaks, fires and explosions that have endangered workers, communities and the environment. Now they plan to bring those dangers to hundreds of communities across the UK, just to make more plastics that we donโtย want.
โWorld Sailing entertaining the greenwasher INEOS as a sponsor of the Americaโs Cup entrant Team UK smacks of total hypocrisy. They must make a stand on behalf of our Oceans, drowning inย plastic.โ
โSir Ben Ainslie should be ashamed of himself taking US$153 million of Jim Ratcliffeโs dirty money to enter the Americaโs Cup. Ben Ainslie turning a blind eye to what INEOS really are doesnโt cutย itโ.
World Sailing responded to the letter by pointing out that while it sanctions the race, it does not have any say over teamย sponsors.
โAdvertising by racing boats must comply with World Sailingโs Advertising Code within the Racing Rules of Sailing which includes an obligation for all advertising to meet generally accepted moral and ethical standardsโ, itย notes.
INEOS has been contacted forย comment.
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image: M J Roscoe/geograph.ac.ukย CC BY–SAย 2.0
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