Fossil fuel companies sponsor $5.6bn in global ‘sportswashing’ deals

Thinktank says funding from oil and gas firms is attempt to ‘divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis’

Fossil fuel companies pumped at least $5.6bn (£4.2bn) of sponsorship money into motorsports, football, golf and even snow sports in an effort to “buy social licence to operate”, according to a new report.

Almost no major spectator sport remains untouched by oil and gas money, according to research carried out by the New Weather Institute (NWI), a climate thinktank, which traced more than 200 sponsorship deals between sports teams and the industry.