Milan, Italy – This morning, Greenpeace Italy activists placed a large installation depicting the Olympic Rings dripping oil and the words “Sponsored by Eni” in Piazza Duomo in Milan, where the Olympic flame is expected to arrive today. 

Activists displayed banners reading “Kick polluters out of the Games”, in a protest against one of the Games’ major sponsors, Italian oil and gas giant Eni, whose greenhouse gas emissions threaten winters as they are currently known and the Winter Olympics and Paralympics themselves.

Photos and videos of the Greenpeace Italy protest can be downloaded via the Greenpeace Media Library

Greenpeace Italy climate campaigner Federico Spadini said, “It’s absurd that the Olympics and Paralympics are partnering with corporations whose emissions threaten the ice and snow that winter sports depend on. Oil and gas companies like Eni are driving the climate crisis, and it is unacceptable that its greenwashing operations have been allowed to tarnish the Olympic values of respect for people and the environment. That’s why Greenpeace is calling for the International Olympic Committee to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games.”

According to recent analysis based on scientific modelling, Eni’s annual emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools.[1] 

In recent days, Greenpeace Italy and Greenpeace International sent an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asking it to ban fossil fuel sponsorships, building on its legacy of banning tobacco advertising in 1988.[2]

Greenpeace Italy has also released a video denouncing Eni’s impact on the Winter Games, featuring the same image of the Olympic Rings dripping oil, as that used in the Milan installation.

ENDS

Photos and videos of the Olympics Rings installation in Milan can be downloaded via the Greenpeace Media Library

Notes:

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0093-1

[2] The open letter to the International Olympic Committee

Watch Greenpeace Italy’s Oilympics video here

Contacts:

Gaia Maione, Press Office Greenpeace Italy, +39 340 571 8019, [email protected]

Martin Zavan, Communications Specialist, Greenpeace International, +61 424 295 422, [email protected] 

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]