British Cycling courts controversy by partnering with Shell

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British Cycling has announced a partnership with Shell, in their journey to reach net-zero, and to spread cycling among a larger, more diverse group. This has drawn widespread criticism on account of Shell being a fossil-fuel company that intends an expenditure of 46 billion USD to increase their fossil-fuel based investments by 2030.

Furthermore, with cycling being a zero-emission mode of transport, the deal is being viewed as a let-down of the members of British Cycling, in an effort to greenwash Shell’s pursuits.

British Council’s partnership with Shell comes amid prolonged financial issues faced by the organization due to lack of stable sponsorships. 2016 saw the end of an 8-year sponsorship by Sky, which included an independent review and allegations of cultural and behavioral issues that had gone unaddressed.

Changes were introduced and HSBC were ushered in as the new sponsor. However, British Cycling continued to not make a large profit as cycling events often don’t require tickets and a lack of flagship events that sports like football have, further added to an absence of large revenue or sponsorships. This caused HSBC to retract from the partnership, which coupled with Covid-19 induced cancellations, further added to British Cycling’s woes, leading them to fire staff and slash salaries.

Soon, rumours started floating of a potential partnership with Shell, along with other candidates such as Virgin, BT, and Halfords. New commercial director Darren Henry, and head of commercial partnerships Chris Williams soon set about to finalize the deal. However, British Cycling is not the first to partner with fossil fuel giants who are desperately trying to lend credibility to their commitment to net-zero.

ExxonMobil are currently partnering with the Belgiannationl team, TotalEnergies is involved in a deal with the French ProTeam, while Russian giants Gazprom have also been involved in similar sponsorships. It remains to be seen how the partnership with Shell shapes out in the future, but for now British Cycling is set to announce several initiatives including Limitless, which aims to provide cycling opportunities to disabled riders.