Private Eye on the British Cycling-Shell deal

You can always count on satirical magazine Private Eye to expose embarrassing issues businesses might want to keep quiet.

In this case it is British Cycling under investigation (Eye issue 1630, August 16-29). Specifically the story is the ongoing controversy about their controversial eight-year sponsorship deal with Shell, the oil giant which continues to invest heavily extracting fossil fuels despite science warning this will further contribute to climate change.

The Eye reported that the campaign group Extinction Rebellion had asked cycling’s Olympic hero Chris Boardman to lobby BC to drop its Shell sponsorship, when they protested at the National Cycling Centre on the eve of the Paris Olympic in July.

Protesters carried placards declaring: “Shell lie, Cyclists die” and “Chris, Hate Shell”.

The BC-Shell deal caused a furore among BC members, and led to resignations.

The Eye reminds us how in 2022, Shell UK offered the “green” sport an eight-year partnership, claiming the deal “would help British Cycling ‘accelerate’ its journey to net zero”, the supposed point at which climate change might stabilise if we cut back on using oil.

But how Shell imagined that would improve their image when they were set to invest a further £46bn in fossil fuels by 2030 is anyone’s guess, the report said.

Whatever Shell was investing in green policies was far outweighed by the £Billions they were spending on oil extraction, environmental groups claimed.

In past blogs I have commented on how the oil Industry has also invested heavily in PR campaigns to discredit the science on climate change, despite their own scientific research 70 years ago informing them that burning fossil fuels would lead to the present scenario.

It’s all tied into growth economics, of course, allowing us earthlings to press on regardless burning oil and speeding towards our own destruction. Once the money starts rolling in – or medals – we cannot stop!

Remember the DuPont story also discussed here recently, covering the story of how the American chemical giant knew early on that the shit they created to make Teflon and other water resistant products would eventually poison everyone on the planet exposing us all to potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Just as the oil industry carried on regardless, so too did DuPont, polishing their “green” credentials by sponsoring bike racing.  There was money to be made.

And British Cycling’s excuse?

Well, clearly they needed a big spender like oil rich Shell to bankroll their expanding organisation and maintain their winning ways.

Ever since the days of Sky funding which turned BC into the top UK sports organisation funding demanded they adopt an insatiable quest for international success and specifically for Olympic gold.  They fear failure to deliver will lead to loss of income and redundancies. In some ways success has become a millstone around their neck.

But the pressure is mounting on British Cycling.

The  Eye reports that besides Shell’s sponsorship, BC has also received £10m in funding from UK Sport who have warned them that the Shell “hook up” is a “reputational risk” for them all.

Since then BC has waded further into polluted waters, signing a funding deal with Lloyds Bank, themselves under attack from activists for funding fossil fuel and arms companies.