MILAN:
Greenpeace activists staged a protest in Milan on Thursday in opposition to the sponsorship of the Milan-Cortina Olympics by power large Eni, warning that fossil gas emissions have been threatening the viability of winter sports activities.
Bearing banners saying “Kick polluters out of the Video games”, the activists arrange a mannequin of the Olympic rings lined in black oil in entrance of the cathedral in central Milan.
The protest got here the day earlier than the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics within the northern Italian metropolis on Friday.
“Sponsorships like Eni’s for Milan-Cortina 2026 usually are not harmless, they’re a distraction to make us overlook the harm these firms are inflicting to the planet,” Greenpeace Italia stated in a press release.
Eni’s “emissions are serving to to remove the snow and ice on which the Olympics themselves rely!”
The Worldwide Olympic Committee confirmed on Wednesday it has acquired a petition bearing 21,000 signatures calling for an finish to fossil gas firms sponsoring winter sports activities.
IOC president Kirsty Coventry advised reporters her staff had met with the petition organisers, including: “It is very nice athletes have a platform to talk up.”
“We’re having conversations with the intention to be higher, and for our stakeholders to be higher. However that takes time,” she stated.
Christophe Dubi, the IOC govt director for the Olympic Video games, added: “We make some extent to obtain these petitions, and we’ve to recognise local weather is a problem for all of us.
“What we’ve to do as an organisation is to be on the forefront of sustainability, and our rules are very clear.”
Eni created the Olympic and Paralympic Torches for the Video games, and has offered round 250 electrical energy mills fuelled by HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) diesel biofuel, which it says contributes to a discount in greenhouse gases.
The agency says on its web site that it has a shared imaginative and prescient with the Video games organisers — “a dedication to more and more sustainable, equitable and accessible power”.
