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 cause the loss of 5.5 square kilometers of snowpack and 34 million metric tons of glacial ice. Without the emissions caused by the event’s three main sponsors, those numbers would be much lower: 2.3 square kilometers of snowpack and about 14 million metric tons of glacial ice.

That’s according to a January report from the New Weather Institute, which worked with Scientists for Global Responsibility and Champions for Earth to determine the environmental impacts of the 2026 Winter Olympics and whether or not the staging of the Games was detrimental to the winter sports most impacted by climate change. What they found was that while the Games themselves caused considerable carbon emissions, the emissions caused by three of of the event’s main sponsors—Italian energy company Eni, automaker Stellantis, and ITA Airways—could possibly give the event a much larger carbon footprint.

Promoting those corporations at the Games, the report’s authors argue, is estimated to bump up emissions “due to increased sales of high carbon goods and services” that those sponsors offer.

The report claims that Eni is responsible for more than half of total emissions brought about by the top three sponsors, followed by Stellantis and ITA. While acknowledging the difficulties involved in getting solid estimates on the companies’ carbon emissions and the size of the Olympic sponsorship deals, the report claims that the additional business those companies stood to gain from their involvement in the Games could cause 1.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. That’s 40 percent more than the Olympics’ direct footprint, which is estimated to be about 930,000 metric tons.

This means an additional loss of 3.2 square kilometers of snowpack and more than 20 million metric tons of glacial ice, adding to the 2.3 square kilometers of snow and 14 million metric tons of ice already impacted by the Games themselves. Put another way, this report claims that the Winter Olympics are contributing to a decline in the viability of the very sports they celebrate.

In response to the findings, an Eni representative told WIRED that the report provided a biased estimate of the company’s contribution to the emissions produced by the Games. The company also noted “more than 90 percent of the fuels supplied by Eni to power the Games are derived from renewable raw materials,” adding that its support of the Games is largely focused on the supply of energy products and services and doesn’t generate additional climate-altering activities.

ITA responded to a request for comment by noting that “sustainability is a cornerstone of ITA Airways’ development strategy” and pointed to its newer more fuel-efficient fleet and plans to use sustainable aviation fuels. The Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, contacted directly about the Games’ environmental impact, declined to comment. Stellantis did not respond to requests for clarification on its sustainability initiatives related to the Olympics.

Winter sports are becoming increasingly rare due to their vulnerability to the effects of global warming. The numbers testify to an emergency already underway. In the past five years, Italy, the Games’ host country, has lost 265 ski resorts. France, which will host the 2030 Winter Olympics, has seen more than 180 resorts in the Alps shutter. Fifty-plus ski lifts and cable cars have closed in Switzerland. With each iteration, the Games become increasingly dependent on artificially made snow.

Out of the 93 locations with the infrastructure necessary to host the Winter Olympics, only 52 of them will be “climate-reliable” by the 2050s if global emissions continue at roughly their current rates, according to a 2024 study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee. By the 2080s, that number drops to 46.