Greens call to dump Tour Down Under Santos sponsorship to ‘walk the walk’ in Adelaide COP31 bid

The Greens say the state government must tear up another event’s biggest sponsorship deal if it’s serious about winning a major climate summit for Adelaide.

Greens calls for SA to “walk the talk” by dropping oil and gas company Santos as an event sponsor in the lead up to a bid for the global COP31 are being rejected by the State Government.

Greens MP Tammy Franks is introducing a bill to the Upper House on Wednesday calling on the State Government to drop the Santos sponsorship of the Tour Down Under, but a government spokesman said the reason South Australia was leading the country in renewables was because the state uses gas.

“Without gas we would not be at 75 per cent renewable energy, and on track to reach 100 per cent net renewables by 2027,” he said.

“Santos has a clear role to play in decarbonisation, including through carbon capture and storage at Moomba.”

SA Upper House Greens Leader Tammy Franks. Picture: Supplied

Stephen Williams of United Kingdom and Team Israel celebrates as overall race winner during the 24th Santos Tour Down Under in 2024. Picture: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

Hospitality chiefs are enthusiastically backing the State Government’s bid to host one of the world’s largest events in Adelaide, saying COP31 would attract top dollar travellers.

Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Anna Moeller said a global conference of the climate change event’s significance would attract great economic benefit to the hospitality industry.

Ms Moeller said it was vital to attract visitors to the state with new money rather than “just recycling money” and the event would draw both interstate and global travellers.

“International conferences, national conferences are really, really important, they bring business travellers and the spend per head, per person will probably be about three times as much as a leisure traveller,” she said.

The State Government has announced it wants to host one of the largest global events in 2026 with the climate change conference expected to attract more than 30,000 visitors.

Premier Peter Malinauskas estimated it would generate an economic benefit upwards of $500m and the event would attract numerous global leaders from King Charles to Hollywood actors.

The announcement attracted the ire of Greens Leader Tammy Franks who called on the State Government to “walk the talk” and back a bill she is introducing to the upper house this Wednesday.

It calls on the State Government to drop oil and gas company Santos as a sponsor for the annual Tour Down Under cycling race.

“I’m calling on the State Government to dump Santos as a Tour Down Under sponsor … it’s extraordinary for the State Government to continue to nurture fossil fuel companies with public money and expect to host COP31,” she said about the climate change conference.

The COP summit – Conference of Parties – is a meeting of 197 nations and is the ultimate climate change decision-making body of the United Nations.

Ms Franks tabled a petition earlier this year with more than 8000 signatures calling for Santos to be dropped as an event sponsor and was now backing the move with her bill.

P[[psotopm leader Vincent Tarzia. Picture : Roy VanDerVegt

She said a protest over the government’s fossil fuel support also would be held on Parliament House’s steps on Wednesday.

Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia cautiously supported the conference bid but wanted to see modeling around economic bounty predictions.

“While we are open minded to hosting this COP, we would want to see the modelling of the economic value to the state, the amount this would cost the state, also noting that this won’t do anything to reduce power bills for South Australians,” Mr Tarzia said.

The Federal Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton has previously taken a swing at Labor MPs attending COP28 last year for creating travel emissions, but there was a sizeable federal Liberal delegation at the event.

State government analysis has confirmed Adelaide has the capacity and capability to hold the annual conference, and a bid will be formally submitted to the federal government.

Originally published as Greens call to dump Tour Down Under Santos sponsorship to ‘walk the walk’ in Adelaide COP31 bid