Irish comedian's 'existential terror' moved him to voice Greenpeace video slamming Total Energies' Rugby World Cup sponsorship

Seán Burke lent his voice to a new Greenpeace campaign highlighting the 'greenwashing' as an outlet for his anger

Irish comedian Seán Burke has lent his voice to a new Greenpeace campaign slamming TotalEnergies’ sponsorship of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The environmental charity estimates fossil fuel firms worldwide extract enough oil to fill a rugby stadium every 3 hours and 37 minutes and six and a half stadiums every 24 hours.

Seán Burke is one of two comedians who provided the voice-over for an animated video highlighting how the production of one million barrels of oil a day is devastating the planet.

Sixty-second film ‘TotalPollution: A Dirty Game’ shows Stade De France filling up with oil as the French go head to head with the New Zealand All Blacks.

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The two teams are due to kick off the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France on September 8.

Seán Burke, who narrated the English version of the campaign video, said: “We’re way past the point where sponsorship by fossil fuel companies should be acceptable.

“Their cute graphics and friendly animations are just a calculated attempt to maintain the status quo and extend a deadline that ran out years ago.

“Make no mistake, the temperature rising is fine by them as long as the profits do too.”

Seán says his inspiration to get involved was “the same existential terror as everybody else with an interest in preventing climate change has right now”.

“It gives me an outlet for the anger we have at these oil companies.

“The inaction of a few could condemn the many and that doesn’t feel very fair. The least we can do is make ourselves heard. And the fact that they can still parade themselves around these sporting events like everything is fine and dandy feels like a sick joke at this stage.”

Greenpeace France was behind the video, produced by Studio Birthplace and represented by Park Village in the UK.

Campaigner, Edina Ifticene, said: “Integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect - those are rugby values.

“But fossil fuel companies like TotalEnergies piggyback those values by sponsoring popular sports events like the Rugby World Cup, to distract everyone from their climate destruction.

“Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies won’t stop extracting fossil fuels - even though they know it’s jeopardising a livable future for us all - because they like the record-breaking profits they’re making.”

TotalEnergies’ Chair and CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, said when their Rugby World Cup sponsorship was announced: “Integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect are key features of this sport, and they match our company’s values [...] more importantly, rugby is organised first and foremost around a team, just like TotalEnergies: a collective of women and men committed to the energy transition.”

But Greenpeace disagrees. They say it’s not the case that fossil fuel companies are genuinely committed to shifting to renewable energy as their analysis of the 2022 annual reports of six global fossil fuel majors and six European oil and gas companies revealed a minuscule 0.3% of their combined energy production came from renewable power.

According to a Greenpeace report, 99% of TotalEnergies’ energy production last year came from fossil fuels, meaning only 1% came from genuinely renewable sources.

Ms Ifticene added: “We want a complete ban on fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship of major sporting events.

“It benefits no one but fossil fuel companies, and deliberately distracts everyone from the environmental destruction they cause and the communities they harm.

“For a safer and fairer world, we must end the fossil fuel era, starting with climate-wrecking new fossil fuel projects, before it’s too late.”

A Rugby World Cup spokesperson said Total is a local sponsor, contracted via the organising committee.

They added: “Rugby World Cup 2023 is committed to a responsible tournament with society and the environmental at its heart. Tournament delivery supports World Rugby’s Environmental Sustainability Plan 2030, centring on low-carbon mobility, such as trains, and the use of existing infrastructure for competition and training venues to reduce the event’s carbon footprint."

They also said they will have greater control over the tournament's entire commercial portfolio as they move towards a new model for 25 and beyond.

TotalEnergies said it is "wrong to claim TotalEnergies is greenwashing by sponsoring the Rugby World Cup 2023" , that they have a long tradition of partnerships with rugby and will be installing electric charging stations near stadiums where EVs can be charged for free.

They also said they are committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 and "will invest nearly 5 billion euros in renewable and low-carbon energies by 2023, and will therefore, for the first time, devote more investments to low-carbon energies than to new hydrocarbon projects". We have asked how much they are investing in oil and gas projects this year and await an answer.

Oil production estimates for the video were based on 2022 figures from the Energy Institute.

Each barrel contains around 159 litres according to the American Petroleum Institute, which Greenpeace estimated would fill the cubic volume (2,253,140 m3) of Stade De France in 3 hrs 37 mins and more than six a half stadiums daily.

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