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The 2026 Winter Olympics is under growing pressure to “clean up its act” and ditch a trio of polluting sponsors.
Scientists and athletes have joined forces ahead of the Games, which are being held in Italy this year, to highlight how deals with huge corporations are making its carbon footprint spiral.
Milan Cortina 2026 will be scattered across the mountains of northern Italy, most of which are within the Dolomites – an area under growing threat from climate change. The 2026 organising committee has already said it plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow, which will require 948,000 cubic meters of water, as warming temperatures continue to melt the region.
In the last five years, Italy has lost a reported 265 ski resorts to rising temperatures, while a major analysis published last year found that global warming is hitting mountain regions, including the Alp,s “more intensely” than lowland areas.
The 2026 Winter Olympics’ carbon footprint
A new report titled Olympics Torched, published by Scientists for Global Responsibility and the New Weather Institute, says the Games will emit around 930,000 tonnes of emissions.
However, researchers warn that just three of their sponsorship deals are expected to generate 1.3 million tonnes more, boosting the total footprint by almost two and a half times.
The total impact of the Games and these sponsorships will lead to around 5.5 square kilometres of snow cover loss, they estimate. This is equivalent to an area of more than 3,000 Olympic-sized ice hockey rinks.
Oil and gas giant Eni, car-maker Stellantis, and Italy’s national airline ITA Airways have been identified as the main culprits, with Eni being responsible for more than half of the added emissions.
“Even without the growing mountain of scientific evidence on the impact of global heating on winter sports, it is plain enough to anyone visiting actual mountains that snow cover is being lost and glaciers are melting,” says Stuart Parkinson, director of Scientists for Global Responsibility.
“This report adds to that evidence by showing that winter sports themselves contribute to that impact both directly through their carbon emissions and by promoting major polluters through advertising and sponsorship. But this also means that winter sports can be part of the solution, by cleaning up their own acts and dropping dirty sponsors.”
The ‘threatened’ future of winter sports
The report argues that the most effective actions for reducing emissions would be for the Winter Olympics to end sponsorship deals with high-carbon corporations, avoid the construction of new venues and other infrastructure, and significantly reduce the number of spectators travelling by air.
“The Olympics will always generate emissions, and reducing them must be a priority,” says Swedish cross-country skier Björn Sandström. “But the Games’ greatest influence is the signal they send to the world.
“When that signal is driven by fossil-fuel sponsorship, it directly contradicts climate science and threatens the future of winter sport.”
Greenlandic biathlete Ukalew Slettermark, a Winter Olympian and former World Junior Champion, argues that it is not “justifiable” that winter sports are giving oil companies a platform to help them look like they’re “contributing positively to society” when they’re not.
“It’s a complete contradiction when the fossil fuel industry is the biggest contributor to climate change, to making winters disappear and therefore also a threat to the very existence of winter sports,” she adds.
Euronews Green has contacted the International Olympic Committee for comment.