Sport is a key part of cultural identity in Australia. Millions of Australians watch and participate in sports. Hundreds of thousands of Australians volunteer every week to do the work needed to bring community sport to life.

Many Australian sport organisations are beginning to take action to reduce their climate pollution footprint and leverage their significant media profiles to promote environmentally positive behaviours. As they do so, the appropriateness of coal, gas and oil sponsorships and partnerships is receiving increasing public scrutiny.

Sport organisations have a history of having to move away from corporate sponsors due to growing public awareness about the harm a particular product inflicts on society. Tobacco, alcohol, and gambling are just some industries that have faced regulation to control their involvement with sport as a promotional platform because of public concern of their impact on individual and community health and wellbeing. Sponsorship arrangements between sport organisations and corporations who extract, or retail coal, gas and oil, are now likely to be heavily scrutinised by sports fans as global and national concern at the impact of climate change on human health and environment grows.

This report focuses on the current involvement of coal, gas and oil corporations in sport sponsorship in Australia. By mapping and understanding where and how coal, gas and oil companies are involved in sport, we can better understand the opportunity for governments to create innovative regulation, and for sport organisations to take greater leadership and action to reduce their own pollution and advocate for other climate positive initiatives to combat environmental degradation and climate change.