We all want a world where winters remain a source of joy. A world where professional athletes and amateurs alike can count on snow and ice to pursue their passions, where children can play in the snow, and where iconic, international sporting events, like the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, continue to take place and inspire people.
But the snowy scenes that provided a backdrop to so many of cherished childhood memories in Italy are under threat. The Games require the right set of conditions for competition to be safe and fair, and those very conditions are under threat from fossil fuel corporations, such as Italian oil and gas giant Eni, and their planet-heating operations.
Now, in the days leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics Milano Cortina, Greenpeace Italy has released a hard-hitting video that aims to cut through the noise and expose the threat that fossil fuels and the Games major sponsor, Eni, in particular, pose to the future of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Oilympics: calling out Eni's greenwashing
The 'Oilympics' film shines a spotlight on Eni's role in fuelling the climate crisis while highlighting our demand that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban all fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship, in order to protect the future of winter sports, and stop polluters from hijacking the Olympic spirit.
Fossil fuel companies are greenwashing their image by sponsoring big sporting events to hide their destruction. Don't let them get away with it.
The short film exposes the irony of a company that is melting winter, sponsoring the Winter Games.
Oil and gas corporations are driving the climate crisis, and at this rate by the 2080s over half of suitable locations will be unable to host the Winter Olympics. And Eni's planet-heating pollution has a central role in this dour forecast. One year of Eni's fossil fuel emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools.
But the impacts go much further. Eni is currently suing Greenpeace Italy because it stated Eni harms people, after Greenpeace Netherlands calculated that Eni's self-reported 2022 emissions could cause 27,000 excess deaths due to increased temperature alone before the end of the century. This was published in a 2023 study by Greenpeace Netherlands based on a peer-reviewed methodology.
Who really pays for Eni's greenwashing?
Given all of that, it's no surprise that Eni actively seeks to hide these truths from the public, reportedly spending tens of millions of dollars on sporting sponsorships to soften its image. Buying an artificial association with the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina is part of that deceptive and cynical greenwashing strategy.
Fossil fuel corporations, like Eni, should pay for the damage they cause, not buy reputational cover by associating themselves with Olympic values of excellence, respect, and friendship.
Greenpeace supporters, nature lovers and the winter sports community are united in our desire to protect the Winter Olympics and Paralympics for present and future generations. The Olympic values of respect for people and the environment matter. Allowing Eni to use the Games as a billboard for greenwashing undermines those values and threatens the future of the event the IOC claims to support.
Eni and the fossil fuel industry are driving climate change, which is jeopardising mountain communities already struggling with a rapidly changing climate, the livelihoods of many people who rely on cold winters, and the 60 million Europeans who ski every year.
How do we stop oil corporations like Eni?
A better future is still within reach. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) can help lead the shift away from fossil fuels by refusing to be complicit in the deceptive practices of corporations like Eni who are stealing the winters that form the backdrop to so many precious childhood memories. This has happened before with tobacco advertising. Once the scientific consensus on the harms of smoking became too strong to ignore, the IOC banned tobacco advertising ahead of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It played a key role in denormalising cigarette advertisements and set a strong precedent that was followed by sporting bodies and other event organisers around the world. It serves as a powerful testament to the power of the IOC to help shape policy at a global level and it shows that the same can be done with fossil fuel sponsorship and advertising.
When iconic and influential sporting and cultural organisations like the Olympics choose integrity over greenwashing, they revoke polluters' license to mislead and force them to face the harms they cause. That's why Greenpeace is taking on fossil fuel corporations like Eni that are stealing our winters by shrinking snow seasons, collapsing glaciers and threatening the sports and traditions that millions of people cherish.
(@greenpeace)Greenpeace is calling for the IOC to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games. It benefits no one but oil and gas corporations; it distracts everyone from the environmental destruction they cause and the communities they harm and helps them avoid accountability.
Fossil fuel companies are greenwashing their image by sponsoring big sporting events to hide their destruction. Don't let them get away with it.
Eni should be paying for the damage they have caused, not using sponsorships to polish their image while driving the climate crisis that threatens the future of winter sport.
A future of icy cold winters with dependable snow is still possible, but like a glacier in the climate crisis, it's melting before our eyes. Protecting the climate requires us to take on the forces that are destroying our winters and everything we love about them. That future is still possible if we change course now.
Federico Spadini is a Greenpeace Italy Campaigner based in Milan, Italy.
