Celebs target Auld Mug for protests
Auckland is set to become ground zero of a protest against the sponsor of Team UK’s 2021 America’s Cup bid.
Protesters have begun a campaign to pull the lead sponsor from Britain’s America’s Cup challenger.
A collection of environmental activists have appealed to World Sailing to stop petrochemical company Ineos from sponsoring Team UK at the America’s Cup regatta in Auckland in 2021.
The protesters, led by fashion designer and head of anti-fracking organisation Talk Fracking, Dame Vivienne Westwood, say Ineos’ environmental practices and damage to the earth’s oceans make them an unsuitable event sponsor.
Other campaign supporters include Greenpeace UK, Food and Water Watch Europe, and Friends of the Earth Ireland.
Ineos is one of the biggest manufacturers of petrochemicals in the world, with a production network spanning 171 sites across 24 countries. It will be the sole funder of Ben Ainslie’s Team UK America’s Cup challenge, putting forward $217 million to bring the cup to Britain.
In the UK, Ineos has attracted some resistance from its practice of fracking for shale gas in Northern England and Scotland.
Talk Fracking spokesman Richard Hillgrove said the protesters were bringing their campaign to New Zealand, setting up a T-shirt venture at the America’s Cup village to ‘‘underline the extraordinary environmental crimes associated with Team UK’s sponsor Ineos’’.
Hillgrove said Ineos’ sponsorship of Team UK was a way of ‘‘greenwashing’’ the company’s reputation.
‘‘For Ineos to sponsor a sailing regatta is equivalent to a cigarette company sponsoring a child’s inhaler.’’
This week an open letter to World Sailing asked it to speak out against Ineos’ sponsorship, citing the organisation’s Code of Ethics promising to ‘‘uphold generally accepted standards for environmental protection’’.
In response, World Sailing chief executive Andy Hunt said although the governing body had not yet given official sanction to the America’s Cup event, they expected to do so ‘‘in due course’’.
Hunt said while racing boat advertising must comply with World Sailing’s advertising code and meet generally accepted moral and ethical standards, it ‘‘does not sanction or otherwise approve sponsorship of competitors or teams’’.
‘‘World Sailing has laid out its own ambitious commitment to help create a better world through sport through Sustainability Agenda 2030 and we have no reason to believe that the 36th America’s Cup will not comply with World Sailing policy.’’
The plans to develop the necessary bases had a fast and little contested journey through the Environment Court, and an ‘‘alliance’’ of construction firms is gearing up now to begin work. Team NZ this week moved from its temporary base in Beaumont Street, to the Viaduct Events Centre, which will be its home for the foreseeable future.
The first base ‘‘platforms’’ are scheduled to be handed over next July, for the first teams to begin setting up on.