HOW ‘GREEN’ IS THE ECO SERIES?
Extreme E isn’t short of commercial partners and TV rights deals with major broadcasters. It’s no coincidence that in every press release announcing such a tie up, brands are keen to highlight how this new relationship shows their environmental conscience. But what are they tapping into? For a series that says it exists to serve a wider purpose, how successful has the climate crisis-targeting modus operandi been?
Pleasingly, the paddock is small. While camera angles avoid capturing car parks and catering tents, the set-up is less than an average UK national meeting. Of course, there are champagnesipping hospitality goers, but if they open their cheque books in return then that’s no bad thing. What’s good is that the size of the prawn sandwich brigade didn’t dramatically shoot up tenfold for the European rounds. It seems Extreme E wants a small footprint, rather than having been logistically limited to one.
It’s also to Extreme E’s credit that it was present and active at COP26 in November and, despite COVID cancelling rounds in Brazil and Argentina, the local environment-benefiting Legacy Programmes have gone ahead in the Amazon regardless.
It’s not just a case of looking good while the camera is on.
Those altered dates meant Saudi Arabia and the UK came to start and end the calendar. Hardly economies that need a helping hand to fund climate action. But Extreme E’s argument has been that it exists to “highlight the impacts” of the damage rather than to ignite change. A Saudi race date goes a long way to paying for a full season. But the reasoning that ‘we don’t mix sports and politics’ has never been a satisfying reply from EX-MEP Alejandro Agag as to why he races there.
Extreme E scientist Richard Washington is more certain. He says: “We can say to Saudi, ‘You can keep all that money we should have taxed and didn’t’, or we can work together and use that resource to move things forward. They have the resource, and that needs to be ploughed back.”
Of course, the greenest motorsport is one that doesn’t exist at all, let alone use the RMS St Helena to ship cars between hemispheres to be met by a few hundred people who have flown there. But by racing in landscapes already damaged, we’re meant to feel better about the sandy ruts left behind by Extreme E and the trees and bushes that have been clipped.
It seems viewers and the more vocal social media users are far from sold on Extreme E’s environmental credentials.
But if the past 18 months teaches us anything, it’s that we should listen to those who are experts in their field.
Apply that to Extreme E and the Oxbridge professors on the scientific committee were quick to sign up when the concept was explained to them, more have come onboard during the year, and they all validate the good work that the series is doing. So perhaps their assessments are the best ones.