Winter Olympics Statement
12th February 2026
Protect Our Winters UK believes the Winter Olympic Games must be a focal point for global climate action. As the climate crisis accelerates, the Winter Olympics are no longer just a sporting spectacle; they are a visible measure of how climate change is reshaping our world.
Why the Winter Olympics matter
The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are taking place in the Alps, a region warming at approximately twice the global average. These Games arrive at a moment when athletes, communities and winter-dependent economies are already experiencing cancelled competitions, shortened seasons, unreliable snow conditions and growing safety risks. Research shows that, if emissions continue on their current trajectory, fewer than half of past Winter Olympic host cities will remain climatically viable by 2050.
The Winter Olympics show us what is possible when the world comes together - but they also show us what we stand to lose. Legacy must mean more than venues and medals. It must mean protecting the communities, cultures and mountain environments that make winter sport possible in the first place. Climate-first decision-making is not optional; it is the only way the Winter Games can have a future. Cat Ainsworth, CEO of POW UKThe Winter Olympics show us what is possible when the world comes together - but they also show us what we stand to lose. Legacy must mean more than venues and medals. It must mean protecting the communities, cultures and mountain environments that make winter sport possible in the first place. Climate-first decision-making is not optional; it is the only way the Winter Games can have a future. Cat Ainsworth, CEO of POW UK
The broken promise of climate leadership
The Milan-Cortina Olympics are the first to be held under the new Agenda 2020+5, which highlighted the ‘urgency of achieving sustainable development’ as a key priority. The Winter Olympics should represent the highest possible standard of climate leadership. They should demonstrate how sport can operate within planetary limits, protect host communities and contribute to long-term decarbonisation.
Milano–Cortina 2026 could have set a global benchmark. Instead, it offers critical lessons for the future.
Lessons from Milano - Cortina 2026
For years Protect Our Winters Italy has been advocating for a more responsible approach to the planning and implementation of the Olympic Games in Milan Cortina. Through community engagement and listing Protect Our Winters Italy developed this Position Paper documenting significant shortcomings in the planning and delivery of the Milano-Cortina Games.
Here is a summary of the shortcomings these issues must not be repeated:
- Transparency and governance
The governance model for Milano-Cortina 2026 lacked transparency and public accountability. Infrastructure plans were only made public following sustained pressure, and 60% of projects proceeded without prior environmental assessment. This approach undermines public trust and raises serious concerns about long-term environmental and financial sustainability.
In future, it should be recognised that the Olympics can, and should be, an example of how large-scale sporting events can leave a positive legacy.
- Environmental impact, resource use and mobility
Despite unprecedented public spending on transport infrastructure, the Games failed to deliver a credible long-term decarbonisation strategy for Alpine mobility. Artificial snowmaking, a highly water- and energy-intensive process, remains central to Games delivery, even as climate change makes natural snow increasingly scarce.
The Olympics must adapt to the territory, not force the territory to adapt to the Olympics.
- Exclusion of local communities
Local Alpine communities were largely excluded from decision-making, with key choices made centrally and public consultation frequently bypassed. This risks leaving behind underused infrastructure, long-term maintenance costs and limited social benefit for host regions.
Meaningful community participation is non-negotiable. A genuine Olympic legacy is defined by long-term wellbeing, not temporary spectacle.
The Winter Olympics should adapt to their host territories, not the other way around. Milano Cortina 2026 shows how ignoring local needs risks leaving behind infrastructure with no real future. Winter sports need healthy mountains, and the Olympic legacy should help protect them. Giorgia Garancini, POW Italy
Better next time: Protecting communities and the outdoor economy
The climate emergency is not only a sporting issue. It is a social, economic and cultural one. When Milano-Cortina 2026 comes to a close the torch passes to France, the next location for the Winter Olympics in 2030.
In 2025, Protect Our Winters France launched the Olympic Citizens’ Convention, an initiative designed to give local residents a direct and meaningful voice in how the Olympic Games are planned and delivered. The Convention builds on years of research and advocacy by Protect Our Winters France, including the development of 17 concrete measures for a more sustainable Olympic Games. Protect Our Winters France has brought together community representatives to deeply understand how the Olympic Games will affect local communities. POW France is calling for the environmental roadmap for the Olympic Games in France to be actively shaped by the community. True sustainability comes from active consultation and planning with communities directly impacted by the Games.
Protect Our Winters UK stands in solidarity with the work of Protect Our Winters Italy and Protect Our Winters France, who are engaging citizens, athletes and local stakeholders to demand better outcomes for future Games.
The science is clear, and both the IOC and the NOCs now know what is to be done to align Winter Olympics with the reality they now take place in. Transport, infrastructure, sponsorship or open governance, it's no more a question of what needs to be done, but how it's going to be addressed be the future NOCs on behalf of the IOC. Antoine Pin, POW France
Sport as a catalyst for climate action
Protect Our Winters UK believes that sport is a powerful driver of climate action. The future of winter sports is inseparable from the future of a stable climate, and the impacts of global warming are already being felt on mountains around the world.
Sport has a unique ability to connect people across borders, cultures and generations. Athletes, in particular, are trusted and influential voices. Many are already speaking out about the climate crisis because their livelihoods, and the places that shape their identities and communities, are under direct threat.
I ski because I love it, and because the places where I trained and competed became part of who I am. Those same environments determine whether our careers, and many other livelihoods, can even exist. Racing calendars are shifting, resorts are closing, so many of my former training and racing grounds are no longer fit for purpose. However, the reality is that the cost of climate change is far bigger than sport alone. If we want future generations to ski, to compete, to simply be safe, we need to protect our mountain environments now by putting climate at the centre of everything we do. Charlie Guest
Athletes have a key voice in this conversation and they have spoken. Over the past week Nikolai Schimer delivered over 20,000 signatures as part of the Ski Fossil Free petition, this included athletes from across the world and 88 Olympians and 53 athletes with an Olympic dream signed a letter to the IOC both calling for an end to fossil fuel sponsorship as this is clearly fundamentally incompatible with the survival of our sports.
New research by climate scientist and POW Canada Science Alliance member Dr. Daniel Scott and team (Dr. Robert Steiger, U of Innsbruck and Dr. Maddy Orr, U of Toronto), shows that climate change is already reshaping when, where, and how the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games can be held. By 2050, less than half of past Winter Olympic venues will have suitable snow conditions due to climate change.
The Winter Olympics are one of the world’s largest sporting stages. This creates a critical opportunity for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), host governments, sponsors and broadcasters to demonstrate genuine climate leadership. That leadership must be rooted in community inclusion, transparent, science-based action and real emissions reductions - not vague sustainability claims or an overreliance on carbon offsets. Dom Winters, POW UK
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