Oil and gas companies are spending an estimated $5.6 billion on sports sponsorships, seeking to extend their social licence to boost production of fossil fuels even as the climate crisis intensifies, according to a new report.

Top sports sponsors include Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company ($1.3 billion); British oil major Shell ($469 million); petrochemicals giant Ineos ($776 million); and French oil company TotalEnergies ($327 million), the study by the New Weather Institute found. 

“Taking money from fossil fuel sponsors is sport signing a deal for more devastating impacts on floods, bush fires and heatwaves,” said Australian former rugby captain, now Senator, Dave Pocock. “If we are going to transition we need to stop fossil fuel companies trying to extend their social license through sponsoring sport.” 

The authors said the report represented the first attempt to quantify the value of fossil fuel sports sponsorships globally, and warned that a lack of transparency over the deals meant the figures were likely to be an underestimate. 

“Oil companies who are delaying climate action and pouring more fuel on the fire of global heating, are using Big Tobacco’s old playbook and trying to pass themselves off as patrons of sport,” said Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute. He added that if sport is to have a future, “It needs to clean itself of dirty money from big polluters and stop promoting its own destruction.”

Titled ‘Dirty Money — How Fossil Fuel Sponsors are Polluting Sport’, the study highlighted 205 active deals over a period starting in 2011 — with some deals scheduled to last until 2030.  The most sponsorships were found in football, motorsports, rugby union, golf and ice hockey — but the authors documented deals in fields from badminton and athletics, to tennis and cricket.

The report also highlighted the growing pursuit of elite sports sponsorships by oil states in the Gulf region — in particular Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. 

While the fossil fuel industry has long faced criticism over its role in the climate crisis, the advertising and public relations sector is now also coming under growing scrutiny.

In June, United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres urged governments to ban fossil fuel advertising and demanded creative agencies stop working for oil and gas companies.