When Italian and international stars such as Laura Pausini, Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey kick off the Winter Olympics in Milan’s San Siro stadium on Friday, February 6, many schools in the city will remain closed that day. Milan hopes to avoid a traffic jam on the opening night. A missed opportunity, environmental organization protests Legambientewho asks why the city would not rather promote sustainable mobility, for example by closing only the surrounding streets of schools to cars, and encouraging students and their parents to walk or cycle to school that day.
It is a small, local polemic in the larger controversies surrounding the Winter Games and their impact on people and the environment. In addition to Milan, where the ice hockey and skating competitions take place, many competitions are also planned in the fashionable ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, such as bobsleigh, skeleton, tobogganing and alpine skiing. The Olympic circus of athletes, media, sponsors and audiences must travel almost five hours between the two locations using special shuttle buses. But there is also competition for medals in Bormio, Livigno and Predazzo, among others, all locations high in the Alps, sometimes with large distances between them on icy winter roads.
The sporting event is organized in three northern Italian regions. The competition area in Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-South Tyrol is the most extensive in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, covering more than 22,000 square kilometers. In one recent report the British Scientists for Global Responsibility and the British-Swedish New Weather Institute, two research and advocacy organizations, estimate total emissions from the Games at around 930,000 tons of CO2. According to the organizations, the sports tournament will eventually lead to a loss of 2.3 square kilometers of snow cover and more than 14 million tons of glacier ice.
It doesn’t stop there. By joining forces with “polluting sponsors” such as energy company Eni, car manufacturer Stellantis and airline ITA Airways, according to the report, Milan-Cortina is estimated to emit an additional 1.3 million tons of CO2 on top, or 40 percent more than the direct emissions from the Games themselves.
‘Tendentious estimate’
Climate scientist Stuart Parkinson, lead author of the report, explains the figures by telephone: “We calculated the basic emissions of 930,000 tons based on the latest projection from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself. The IOC’s most recent estimate was 1 million tonsregardless of the effect of planned energy-efficient measures. We also took the effect of these interventions into account in our calculation.”
The large additional emissions that the authors of the report attribute to the sponsors are based on the expected income growth due to the additional visibility for these companies as sponsors of the Games. This therefore concerns a further indirect increase in emissions. “No company sponsors such an event for an audience of 2 billion television viewers without expecting to sell more,” says the climate scientist. Eni, active in oil and gas exploration, spoke in the Italian media of a “tendentious” estimate and emphasizes that it largely supplies the Games with renewable energy.
Parkinson stands by his report. According to the climate scientist, the organizers sent a much better message by choosing companies with low emissions as sponsors, limiting air traffic to the Olympic locations and certainly not building new sports complexes. That was also the original plan in the candidacy for these Games. This emphasizes sustainability and the goal of using as much existing winter sports infrastructure as possible.
But the plan was gradually adjusted. In Milan, Olympic ice hockey will soon take place in a brand new arena, a private construction project by the German company CTS Eventim. The price tag is still unknown, but some sources report that the cost may amount to more than 250 million euros. Cortina d’Ampezzo has a new bobsleigh track, costing 118 million euros. A lot of money for niche sports such as bobsleigh, luge and skeleton with only about fifty participants in the whole of Italy, say critics. The Italian government is investing 3.5 billion euros in the upcoming Winter Games.
Snow cannons
“The bobsleigh track is madness and an example of pure construction speculation,” says writer and climate activist Paolo Cognetti, in an podcast of the newspaper Il Dolomiti. “That artificial, very expensive track through the mountains is used for a few days during the Games and is deserted afterwards.” This is also what happened after the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Cognetti notes. Especially for those Games, the municipality of Cesana Torinese, not far from the French border, received a new bobsleigh track. But since 2011, the sports complex has been in disrepair. In vain did the mayor propose modernizing the track and using it for these Games.
Cognetti, who alternates between Milan and Estoul, a mountain village in the northern Italian Aosta Valley, is even more critical of the attitude to climate change. In Estoul the spring water dries up, something even the oldest residents have never experienced. The glaciers of the Monte Rosa mountain massif are rapidly melting. But people continue to climb higher and higher in search of snow. He can’t get his head around it, he said last year NRCthat even pieces of ice are dug from glaciers with bulldozers to build ski slopes.
How sustainable is it to continue to practice winter sports in those fragile Alps and regularly organize major sports tournaments such as the Games or skiing World Cup competitions? According to Scientists for Global Responsibility and New Weather Institute, 265 ski stations in Italy closed in the past five years. The winter sports season in Italy is already impossible without snowmaking, which uses a large amount of water and energy.
The organizers of Milan-Cortina will also use artificial snow, regardless of the natural snowfall, to best control the conditions of the race tracks. This kind of snow will also be needed in 2030 in France, the next host of the Winter Games, where more than 180 ski stations have already closed. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself estimates that in 2040 only ten countries eligible to host the Winter Games.
According to Antonio Montani, president of the Club Alpino Italiano, an association of mountain enthusiasts and also a recognized environmental protection organization, the Winter Games are “the tip of the iceberg” and highlight the real problem. “Hundreds of ski stations remain open only with artificially created snow, which entails high energy costs. Without subsidies they cannot survive.” Keeping large ski stations open at all costs is no longer possible, Montani says on the phone. “High time to think about a different, more sustainable economic and tourism model for the mountains.”
And this also applies to the future of the Winter Olympics: “The impact on the community is great. Because who is actually going to pay for the expensive maintenance of the new bobsleigh track?” The environment will also suffer significantly from the Games, he fears. The Italian Alpine Club was invited during the preparations for the sports tournament, but quickly left the discussions. According to President Montani, this happened because environmental impact assessments were lacking for infrastructure works such as streets, parking lots and the water reservoirs needed for snow production.
His association is not at all against the Winter Games, the chairman explains: “Our members love mountains, snow and alpine skiing, an Olympic discipline. Of course we will sympathize and encourage them later,” says Montani. “The Games are a great celebration and send an important message of peace worldwide. They certainly have their importance and also a future.” But then the approach must be different, says the nature lover. Think about a different and innovative model, he suggests. “And finally abandon this industrial approach in an already extremely fragile mountain landscape.”
The journalistic principles of NRC
