The pushback against climate-wrecking insurance companies sports-washing their reputations by sponsoring rugby, kicked off on 15 March when Extinction Rebellion Cymru staged a comedy rugby match before the Wales vs. England Six Nations rugby match at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.

Wearing snorkels and flippers to signify the danger of increased flooding, activists staged a mock rugby match accompanied by comedy commentary and samba drummers outside the stadium. The creative action marks the start of a series of interventions aiming to drop kick Howden out of rugby.

World Rugby has highlighted the dangers climate change poses to the sport, in its report Rugby and climate change. Increased flash flooding will see more pitches underwater and more heatwaves means more cancelled matches.

So it’s completely inappropriate for rugby to take sponsorship from a company that is helping accelerate the climate crisis by underwriting new fossil fuel projects when scientists say we need to be rapidly phasing them out.

Howden signed a four-year sponsorship deal with The British & Irish Lions in 2023, becoming their new principal partner. As part of the deal, Howden will be the front of shirt sponsors for this year’s British & Irish Lions Men’s Tour to Australia. At the same time British & Irish Lions captains and Rugby World Cup winners are working as ambassadors for the climate-wrecking insurance company.

This sponsorship deal is part of a wider trend. Twickenham Stadium – the home of the England national rugby union team – was recently renamed the Allianz Stadium in a £100m sponsorship deal between the German insurance giant and Rugby Football Union.

Howden – who have over 100 branches across the UK for home and car insurance – has been repeatedly targeted by Extinction Rebellion local groups for enabling climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects by brokering insurance for oil drilling, coal mining, and oil infrastructure. Earlier this year XR disrupted an insurance industry conference which was being hosted at Howden’s London headquarters.

Insurers are increasingly refusing to insure properties that are located in flood-prone areas while rising insurance premiums in flood-risk areas mean many people are unable to afford cover.

Jo Brown, teacher, 39, of Splott, said: “Rugby fans may not realise that their clubs are being sponsored by insurance companies who have no interest in preserving our planet for the future, yet they get the benefit of publicity from being on our shirts. I don’t want my club and my game to be associated with companies who are complicit in wrecking our children’s future.”

Mary Smith , architect, 52, of Abergavenny, added: “We want the companies who sponsor our game to clean up their act and not just sports-wash it. I would like to see rugby disassociate from fossil fuels and support a sustainable future.”

Marcus Bailie, retiree from Cardiff, said: “The climate crisis poses a grave threat to rugby, as it does with everything we hold dear. Each additional fraction of a degree of global warming means stadiums will be underwater more and more often. Grassroots clubs will face the brunt of these impacts, as they don’t have the resources to bounce back as easily.”

“Mining and burning coal, oil and gas is the biggest single cause of climate change. These dirty projects are only possible due to Insurers, such as Howden and Allianz, underwriting them. They sponsor games like rugby in order to clean up their image, and cover up the climate damage they are facilitating.”

“Sport more generally is threatened by high temperatures, with future games set to need more breaks for hydration and heat exhaustion, or needing to be cancelled altogether. The fossil fuel industries are making sure that civilisation is heading into the climate crisis with our foot planted firmly on the accelerator.

“Howden must stop insuring all fossil fuel projects or else the Rugby Unions and grassroots supporters must look for a sponsor elsewhere.”

This action was covered in Insurance Times, The Morning Star and The Canary.

Extinction Rebellion’s Insure our Survival campaign has been targeting insurance companies who underwrite climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects. Extinction Rebellion UK and its local groups launched 134 actions against dirty insurers across the country in 2024 including two nationwide weeks of action.

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