Interviews are available with Olympian Etienne Stott: press@extinctionrebellion.uk,  07756136396.

The Rugby Football Union has failed so far to respond to questions about the due diligence it carries out when selecting suitable sponsors. Extinction Rebellion put the questions to the RFU in writing on Thursday ahead of the rugby final at Twickenham this weekend. 

Extinction Rebellion asked the RFU: “What due diligence do the RFU do on the impact potential sponsors’ business dealings have on English clubs, and flooding in particular?” and “Was that applied rigorously to the reported £150m Allianz deal?” At the time of this press release no reply has been received.

Extinction Rebellion will be engaging with the 82,000 rugby fans at the Premiership final at Twickenham today to expose the hypocrisy of the RFU taking money from Allianz while the insurer is fuelling the climate chaos that is flooding rugby clubs across the country. They will be asking fans to sign a petition calling on all Unions to drop any and all sponsors who are driving the UK flooding of rugby, before it becomes a full-on crisis.

Beyond flooding people’s homes [1], causing life-threatening heatwaves [2], and raising food prices [3], the climate crisis is having a disruptive impact on sport, including local rugby clubs. Up and down the country, pitches are being flooded, with Newark Rugby Club in Nottinghamshire, for example, experiencing six floods last year, causing them major losses and preventing them from being able to offer rugby to their community for long periods of time [4].

The climate crisis could not happen without insurance. The oil, gas, and coal industries are legally obliged to insure their operations, including their pipelines, oil rigs, and coal mines. Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival Campaign demands insurers withdraw from the fossil fuel market and pull the plug on new oil and gas projects. 

Oil, gas and coal companies require insurance to dig and drill. It enables continued harm as the planet burns by covering their operations against financial losses when things go wrong. At the same time, insurance companies are using climate change as an excuse to double or even triple the cost of home insurance for ordinary homeowners, allowing them to rake in more profit from a crisis of their own making [5].  

As a result of thousands taking to the street last year, Insure our Survival succeeded in getting the giant insurers Zurich to pull out of new oil and gas [6] [7] [8], and leading underwriter Probitas to commit to not insure two major ‘carbon bomb’ projects – the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and the West Cumbria coal mine [9]. All eyes are now on the companies that continue to profit from fuelling climate disaster. 

Research by the global campaign group Insure Our Future shows Allianz to be among the top ten oil and gas insurers [10] underwriting $925M in fossil fuel premiums in total in 2023 [11]. Allianz also holds $26bn worth of assets in fossil fuel companies [12], placing them in the top 10 worst insurance companies for fossil fuel investments [13]. 

Rugby is flooded with insurance money, from Allianz sponsoring the Twickenham stadium, AJ Gallagher sponsoring the premiership final match itself, to Howden sponsoring the British Lions tour. This means that the sponsors of rugby are directly responsible for climate disasters disrupting the rugby community and the lives of its fans through their deals supporting planetwide oil, gas and coal extraction.

At Twickenham, Extinction Rebellion supporters will attract fans’ attention with outreach and banners and by handing out leaflets and beer mats and engaging them in hundreds of conversations. They will be asking fans to sign a petition and get their clubs to put pressure on rugby unions.

Gold-medal Olympian Etienne Stott who is a spokesperson for the action said: “We will not be disrupting the match – but we will be getting the conversation going with rugby fans about how dirty insurance is harming the sport they love. We will be calling on the RFU to stop sports-washing floody insurers like Allianz, who are fuelling the climate crisis, which is flooding our clubs.”

Notes to editors

[1] How climate change worsens heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods
[2] UK weather: Hotter than normal summer more likely says Met Office – BBC Weather
[3] Five charts: How climate change is driving up food prices around the world  – Carbon Brief
[4] Newark Rugby Club counts cost of sixth flood in just over a year
[5] How insurers are using climate change as an excuse to TRIPLE the cost of home cover | This is Money
[6] Insurance Week of Action – Extinction Rebellion UK
[7] Zurich CEO to hold talks with XR after week of insurance protests
[8] Insure Our Future Responds to Zurich’s New Oil and Gas Exit Policy
[9] Probitas pulls out of EACOP and West Cumbria coal mine
[10] IoF-Scorecard-2024.pdf p.25
[11] IoF-Scorecard-2024.pdf p.26
[12] Fossil Fuel Investment Data | Investing in Climate Chaos
[13] Scorecard – Insure Our Future Global

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

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Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate and ecological crisis which is upon us, including the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, leading to societal collapse and mass loss of life. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the frontline. No one will escape the devastating impacts.