The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
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/ February 5, 2026
The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
Global warming means the future of Winter Games “is literally melting away.”
Mark Hertsgaard
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Members of the International Olympic Committee speak during a press conference in Milan, Italy, in February 2026.(Jiang Qiming / China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Some of the world’s greatest winter sports athletes have called on the International Olympics Committee to stop taking fossil fuel industry money, including from Italian oil giant ENI, a “Premium Partner” of the 2026 Winter Olympics. “The time has come to question the ethical implications of…normalizing the connections between our sports and the detrimental effects of the product that [fossil fuel companies] sell,” reads a petition delivered yesterday to IOC officials in Milan, Italy, where the Games’ opening ceremony takes place on Friday.
Burning oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming, which is raising winter temperatures and reducing the snow cover that skiing and other winter sports require. Winters are rapidly warming across much of the Northern Hemisphere, threatening not only the Olympics but also communities economically and culturally dependent on skiing and other winter recreational activities.
To date, the petition to the IOC and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has attracted more than 20,000 signatories, including Alex Hall of the US, who won the Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing at the 2022 Winter Games; Helvig Wessel of Norway, the 2024 Freeride World Tour skiing champion; and Nikolai Schirmer, also of Norway, whose nonprofit Ski Fossil Free organized the petition and hand-delivered it to IOC officials on February 4; a full list of signatories is available here.
Although neither the IOC nor ENI have yet commented on the petition, the IOC did purchase 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow to enable reliable conditions for events taking place in the Italian Alps town of Cortina d’Ampezzo. ENI, which has said it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, announced in December that “90% of the fuels that Eni…will supply to power the Games will be derived from renewable feedstocks.”
February temperatures have warmed by 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the 70 years since Cortina hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1956, according to new research from the scientific nonprofit Climate Central. Cortina now experiences 41 fewer freezing days per year than it did in 1956. Globally, only half of the locations deemed …
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Current Issue
Activism
/ February 5, 2026
The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
Global warming means the future of Winter Games “is literally melting away.”
Mark Hertsgaard
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Edit
Ad Policy
Members of the International Olympic Committee speak during a press conference in Milan, Italy, in February 2026.(Jiang Qiming / China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Some of the world’s greatest winter sports athletes have called on the International Olympics Committee to stop taking fossil fuel industry money, including from Italian oil giant ENI, a “Premium Partner” of the 2026 Winter Olympics. “The time has come to question the ethical implications of…normalizing the connections between our sports and the detrimental effects of the product that [fossil fuel companies] sell,” reads a petition delivered yesterday to IOC officials in Milan, Italy, where the Games’ opening ceremony takes place on Friday.
Burning oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming, which is raising winter temperatures and reducing the snow cover that skiing and other winter sports require. Winters are rapidly warming across much of the Northern Hemisphere, threatening not only the Olympics but also communities economically and culturally dependent on skiing and other winter recreational activities.
To date, the petition to the IOC and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has attracted more than 20,000 signatories, including Alex Hall of the US, who won the Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing at the 2022 Winter Games; Helvig Wessel of Norway, the 2024 Freeride World Tour skiing champion; and Nikolai Schirmer, also of Norway, whose nonprofit Ski Fossil Free organized the petition and hand-delivered it to IOC officials on February 4; a full list of signatories is available here.
Although neither the IOC nor ENI have yet commented on the petition, the IOC did purchase 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow to enable reliable conditions for events taking place in the Italian Alps town of Cortina d’Ampezzo. ENI, which has said it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, announced in December that “90% of the fuels that Eni…will supply to power the Games will be derived from renewable feedstocks.”
February temperatures have warmed by 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the 70 years since Cortina hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1956, according to new research from the scientific nonprofit Climate Central. Cortina now experiences 41 fewer freezing days per year than it did in 1956. Globally, only half of the locations deemed …
The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
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The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
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Current Issue
Activism
/ February 5, 2026
The International Olympics Committee Is Urged to Drop Oil Company Sponsors
Global warming means the future of Winter Games “is literally melting away.”
Mark Hertsgaard
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Edit
Ad Policy
Members of the International Olympic Committee speak during a press conference in Milan, Italy, in February 2026.(Jiang Qiming / China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Some of the world’s greatest winter sports athletes have called on the International Olympics Committee to stop taking fossil fuel industry money, including from Italian oil giant ENI, a “Premium Partner” of the 2026 Winter Olympics. “The time has come to question the ethical implications of…normalizing the connections between our sports and the detrimental effects of the product that [fossil fuel companies] sell,” reads a petition delivered yesterday to IOC officials in Milan, Italy, where the Games’ opening ceremony takes place on Friday.
Burning oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming, which is raising winter temperatures and reducing the snow cover that skiing and other winter sports require. Winters are rapidly warming across much of the Northern Hemisphere, threatening not only the Olympics but also communities economically and culturally dependent on skiing and other winter recreational activities.
To date, the petition to the IOC and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has attracted more than 20,000 signatories, including Alex Hall of the US, who won the Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing at the 2022 Winter Games; Helvig Wessel of Norway, the 2024 Freeride World Tour skiing champion; and Nikolai Schirmer, also of Norway, whose nonprofit Ski Fossil Free organized the petition and hand-delivered it to IOC officials on February 4; a full list of signatories is available here.
Although neither the IOC nor ENI have yet commented on the petition, the IOC did purchase 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow to enable reliable conditions for events taking place in the Italian Alps town of Cortina d’Ampezzo. ENI, which has said it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, announced in December that “90% of the fuels that Eni…will supply to power the Games will be derived from renewable feedstocks.”
February temperatures have warmed by 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the 70 years since Cortina hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1956, according to new research from the scientific nonprofit Climate Central. Cortina now experiences 41 fewer freezing days per year than it did in 1956. Globally, only half of the locations deemed …
