Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace has urged organisers of the upcoming Winter Olympics to sever ties with Italian oil major Eni, warning that the company’s fossil fuel operations are undermining efforts to safeguard snow-dependent sports amidst a warming climate.
The Milano Cortina Olympics, scheduled to run from 6 to 22 February, lists state-controlled Eni as one of its premium domestic sponsors.
Greenpeace argues that Eni’s activities significantly contribute to global warming, accelerating the loss of natural snow cover and glacier mass across the Alps and other vital winter sports regions.
“The Winter Olympics need snow, not fossil fuels,” Greenpeace declared in a video depicting an avalanche of black oil engulfing skiers and the iconic five-ring symbol of the Games.
In response, Eni stated that it “shared the importance of addressing climate change” and affirmed its commitment to investing in the energy transition as part of its plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Greenpeace and fellow environmental group ReCommon are currently pursuing a climate change case against Eni.
The Alps are experiencing rising temperatures at twice the global average, according to specialist research group SLF. This trend has already led to the closure of several Italian ski resorts and forced organisers to rely heavily on artificial snow.
Campaigners contend that companies whose core business activities exacerbate global warming should not be given a platform at events intrinsically linked to cold weather.
“Polluters shouldn’t get a podium at the Games. It’s time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to drop oil and gas sponsorship,” Greenpeace asserted, suggesting the IOC follow the precedent set in 1988 when tobacco advertising was banned from the Winter Olympics.
Contacted for comment, the IOC stated that the Games in Italy were planned with a strong focus on reducing their environmental footprint and supporting host regions in adapting to climate change.
The committee added that the Games “engage with a range of partners across different sectors, including those investing in technologies and solutions relevant to the global energy transition.”
Greenpeace data suggests that the carbon dioxide emissions from Eni in a single year could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools.
“So that’s something that I mean, we cannot accept and that’s the reason we are pushing the IOC to drop this kind of sponsorship for this edition of the Games and the future ones,” Greenpeace spokesman Federico Spadini told Reuters TV.
However, Eni disputes this calculation, describing the translation of a single energy operator’s CO₂ emissions into a specific potential share of global glacial mass loss as “a simplistic and even misleading exercise.”
The company argues that such an estimate fails to account for global demand for fossil energy and the crucial role of governments in defining climate policies and allocating resources for the transition.
