The 2026 Winter Olympics Will Have a Major Impact on the Region’s Snow

All told, the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are estimated to origin the nonaccomplishment of 5.5 quadrate kilometers of snowpack and 34 cardinal metric tons of glacial ice. Without the emissions caused by the event’s 3 main sponsors, those numbers would beryllium overmuch lower: 2.3 quadrate kilometers of snowpack and astir 14 cardinal metric tons of glacial ice.

That’s according to a January study from the New Weather Institute, which worked with Scientists for Global Responsibility and Champions for Earth to find the biology impacts of the 2026 Winter Olympics and whether oregon not the staging of the Games was detrimental to the wintertime sports astir impacted by clime change. What they recovered was that portion the Games themselves caused sizeable c emissions, the emissions caused by 3 of of the event’s main sponsors—Italian vigor institution Eni, automaker Stellantis, and ITA Airways—could perchance springiness the lawsuit a overmuch larger c footprint.

Promoting those corporations astatine the Games, the report’s authors argue, is estimated to bump up emissions “due to accrued income of precocious c goods and services” that those sponsors offer.

The study claims that Eni is liable for much than fractional of full emissions brought astir by the apical 3 sponsors, followed by Stellantis and ITA. While acknowledging the difficulties progressive successful getting coagulated estimates connected the companies’ c emissions and the size of the Olympic sponsorship deals, the study claims that the further concern those companies stood to summation from their engagement successful the Games could origin 1.3 cardinal metric tons of c dioxide equivalent emissions. That’s 40 percent much than the Olympics’ nonstop footprint, which is estimated to beryllium astir 930,000 metric tons.

This means an further nonaccomplishment of 3.2 quadrate kilometers of snowpack and much than 20 cardinal metric tons of glacial ice, adding to the 2.3 quadrate kilometers of snowfall and 14 cardinal metric tons of crystal already impacted by the Games themselves. Put different way, this study claims that the Winter Olympics are contributing to a diminution successful the viability of the precise sports they celebrate.

In effect to the findings, an Eni typical told WIRED that the study provided a biased estimation of the company’s publication to the emissions produced by the Games. The institution besides noted “more than 90 percent of the fuels supplied by Eni to powerfulness the Games are derived from renewable earthy materials,” adding that its enactment of the Games is mostly focused connected the proviso of vigor products and services and doesn’t make further climate-altering activities.

ITA responded to a petition for remark by noting that “sustainability is simply a cornerstone of ITA Airways’ improvement strategy” and pointed to its newer much fuel-efficient fleet and plans to usage sustainable aviation fuels. The Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, contacted straight astir the Games’ biology impact, declined to comment. Stellantis did not respond to requests for clarification connected its sustainability initiatives related to the Olympics.

Winter sports are becoming progressively uncommon owed to their vulnerability to the effects of planetary warming. The numbers attest to an exigency already underway. In the past 5 years, Italy, the Games’ big country, has mislaid 265 skis resorts. France, which volition big the 2030 Winter Olympics, has seen much than 180 resorts successful the Alps shutter. Fifty-plus skis lifts and cablegram cars person closed successful Switzerland. With each iteration, the Games go progressively babelike connected artificially made snow.

Out of the 93 locations with the infrastructure indispensable to big the Winter Olympics, lone 52 of them volition beryllium “climate-reliable” by the 2050s if planetary emissions proceed astatine astir their existent rates, according to a 2024 survey commissioned by the International Olympic Committee. By the 2080s, that fig drops to 46.