City of Gothenburg becomes billboard for climate villain Exxon
Today we publish an op-ed in one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, Göteborgs-Posten, exposing the double standards of the municipality of Gothenburg. A year ago, the city decided to ban advertising for fossil fuels in public areas that the city owns. But over the past week, the city’s arena Scandinavium has been a global billboard for the climate villain Exxon through their sponsorship of IIHF World Junior Championship, an event seen by some 100 million people around the world.
“In an appalling example of sportswashing, the city of Gothenburg now acts as a global billboard for the notorious climate villain Exxon, one of the world's largest oil and gas corporations. We demand that Gothenburg immediately live up to its political decisions and stop all fossil fuel advertising on the areas the city decides on.
Right now, the IIHF World Junior Championship is taking place here in Gothenburg. The hockey stars of the future meet in an event that is followed by around 100 million television viewers around the world. But on TV and in the rink, these young stars are not the only ones getting attention – the oil company Exxon is also reaching an audience of millions.
Exxon claims that its Esso brand is synonymous with hockey in Canada through events such as Esso Medals, Esso Fun Days and the Esso Cup. But in addition to Exxon’s history of sponsoring hockey, the oil and gas corporation is also world-renowned for its dark history of funding climate denial, blocking progressive policies, and misleading governments and the public about the worsening climate crisis.
A research article in Science from June 2023 states that Exxon's management has known since at least the late 1970s that human emissions of carbon dioxide would lead to climate change, but the corporation chose to cast doubt on the issue in the public debate and prevent policy decisions that would negatively impact their profits. Since then, Exxon has actively sponsored sports to improve its reputation, a classic example of sportswashing.
This year’s IIHF World Junior Championship, organised by the International Ice Hockey Federation, takes place at Frölundaborg and at Scandinavium. Both venues belong to Higab, a real estate company owned by the City of Gothenburg. It is unacceptable that the organiser allows advertising for one of the world's largest and most polluting oil and gas corporations.
We therefore ask IIHF to drop fossil fuel sponsorships. It is a big irony that organisations within winter sports still accept money from fossil fuel companies whose emissions are melting the snow and ice that those sports depend on.
Photo: Unsplash
The city of Gothenburg also carries a big responsibility for what is shown in their arenas. Esso's sponsorship takes place despite the municipality’s decision to stop fossil fuel advertising, and just a few weeks after the major climate conference COP28 in Dubai decided that the world should ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels.
The city of Gothenburg has made a good decision to stop fossil advertising, which means "developing guidelines to ban advertising for fossil coal, oil, and gas extraction on Gothenburg city billboards". So far we have seen nothing concrete of this, and Esso's advertising during the IIHF World Junior Championship shows that it is urgent.
Right now, Gothenburg acts as a billboard for an oil corporation with a history of massive emissions and climate denial. How long will the city management allow it?
Steve Baynes, Co-founder, Save Pond Hockey
Gunnar Lind/Anna Jonsson, Co-founder, New Weather Sweden
Andrew Simms, New Weather Institute, UK
Gustav Martner, Head of creative, Greenpeace Nordic.”
This op-ed was originally published in Göteborgs-Posten 5th of Jan 2024.
On January 16, the city of Gothenburg responded and reiterated its "ambition" to ban fossil advertising because "Gothenburg should not be a showcase for climate villains."