New code of conduct calls for end to “absurd” fossil fuel sponsorships

The end may be nigh for fossil fuel companies using sports and the arts as advertising vehicles, after the Climate Council launched a voluntary code to remove it.

The proposed code is a pledge from sporting organisations to not enter into new sponsorship arrangements, or take funding or any in-kind contributions from coal, oil and gas companies nor use their logos on promotional materials.

Dr Ashlee Morgan, report co-author from Edith Cowan University’s School of Business and Law, says the code comes with practical guidance for how organisations can replace fossil fuel sponsorships with new partnerships.

It comes after mounting pressure from athletes, artists and fans, who have begun publicly arguing against sponsorships from fossil fuel companies.

Last year, players at the Fremantle Dockers AFL club objected to sponsorship from Woodside, without successfully convincing the club to cancel the contract.

The Diamonds netball team, however, saw off a $15 million deal from iron ore miner Gina Rinehart, and Pat Cummins called out Cricket Australia’s $40 million deal with Alinta the day the organisation cut ties with it. 

Santos is no longer sponsoring the Darwin Festival after environmental activists and traditional owners objected. 

Climate change is having an impact on sports, arts

The code was developed with Edith Cowan University, alongside a report called Calling Time: How to Remove Fossil Fuel Sponsorships From Sports, Arts and Events.

It  looks at how fossil fuel companies such as Woodside, Santos, Chevron and Tamboran Resources use arts and sports to divert attention from the environmental impact of their activities, and gain social licences. 

The report noted the myriad ways climate changed weather and fossil fuel companies’ direct actions are already causing problems for Australian arts and sport.

Aboriginal rock art near Armidale in New South Wales was destroyed during the Black Summer bushfires, while Woodside has already admitted to damaging the sacred Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, as it builds the gas project the Burrup Hub.

Heatwaves are already disrupting major sporting tournaments such as the Australian Open where tennis players regularly suffer through extreme heat. 

In 2019, the Big Bash League had to cancel a match between the Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers mid-play in Canberra due to bushfire smoke (ABC 2019) while Australia’s National Gallery closed in 2020 to protect works by Matisse and Picasso from bushfire smoke. And just last year the Splendour in the Grass music festival was cancelled due to torrential rains.

“By 2040, heatwaves in Sydney and Melbourne could exceed 50 degrees Celsius,” authors from the Climate Council and Edith Cowan University wrote. 

“Polling commissioned by The Australia Institute in October 2022 found that more than half (53 percent) of Australians believe that fossil fuel companies should be banned from sponsoring national sporting teams, while almost two-thirds (60 percent) liken fossil fuel sponsorships to tobacco sponsorship.”

Australia has booted a big sponsor before

Given the damage already being done to Australia’s arts and sporting cultures, “it is absurd” that fossil fuel companies are still allowed to sponsor them, says Dr Jennifer Rayner, Climate Council head of advocacy.

“We’ve designed a framework to help CEOs and Boards of these organisations do some deep thinking about whether their values as a club are aligned with fossil fuels,” she said.

:If they choose to sign the pledge, they’ll be sending a signal to their many members, fans and the Australian community that they are serious about confronting climate change.”

When sports stars and teams have spoken up against specific sponsors, they have often been accused of working against their own interests in the name of being “woke”, as happened to the Diamonds.

But the Edith Cowan study noted that Australia has removed a major funder from sports and arts before, when tobacco sponsorship was banned in the 1970s. 

Radio and television ads were banned in 1976, and legislation was passed in 1992 to remove all other new sponsorship and advertising. 

By 1998 all domestic sponsorships had ended.

“The argument that sport would collapse without the financial investment of tobacco brands proved completely unfounded and our codes have continued to flourish in the years since the ban,” the report said. 

Already some sports teams are leading the way. Last year the Southampton Football Club and EcoWatt partnered to become Carbon Neutral by 2030, while the Arsenal Football Club was the first to switch to entirely green energy from 2016.