British Cycling Faces Criticism of New Partnership with Shell

British Cycling has formed an eight-year partnership with the oil and gas company Shell. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are critical of this decision. Protect Our Winters UK has sent a letter to British Cycling CEO Brian Facer. They want him to respond by the end of week.  Protect Our Winter will escalate and reach out to other networks. The organisation is the British governing body for cycling. It was previously partnered with HSBC. British cycling organisation wants to reach climate net-zero targets. Shell's ambition is to be a net zero emissions company by 2050 or sooner. However, there is no immediate goal to start moving to netzero in the next 10 to 20 years.

Protect Our Winters UK is disappointed with British Cycling's decision to accept the sponsorship from Shell. The organisation will engage with its stakeholders to discuss the issue. British cycling has a history of controversial partnerships with fossil fuel companies and other industries. It remains to be seen how British cyclists will respond to the situation. It is also unknown if the response will lead to any changes. Ineos Grenadiers team is partly named after one of the largest chemical companies in the world. They produced 22,300 tons of chemicals and over 3.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2019.

British Cycling has nothing further to add at the time of publishing.