Bearing banners saying "Kick polluters out of the Games", the activists set up a model of the Olympic rings covered in black oil in front of the cathedral in central Milan.

The protest came the day before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in the northern Italian city on Friday.

Burning fossil fuels causes the planet to warm at a rapid rate, making winters shorter and milder -- a big problem for winter sports.

"Sponsorships like Eni's for Milan-Cortina 2026 are not innocent, they are a distraction to make us forget the damage these companies are causing to the planet," Greenpeace Italia said in a statement.

Eni's "emissions are helping to eliminate the snow and ice on which the Olympics themselves depend!"

The International Olympic Committee confirmed on Wednesday it has received a petition bearing 21,000 signatures calling for an end to fossil fuel companies sponsoring winter sports.

IOC president Kirsty Coventry told reporters her team had met with the petition organisers, adding: "It's really nice athletes have a platform to speak up."

"We are having conversations in order to be better, and for our stakeholders to be better. But that takes time," she said.

Christophe Dubi, the IOC executive director for the Olympic Games, said: "We make a point to receive those petitions, and we have to recognise climate is a challenge for all of us."

Eni created the Olympic and Paralympic Torches for the Games, and has provided around 250 electricity generators fuelled by HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) diesel biofuel, which it says contributes to reducing greenhouse gases.

Despite its pledge to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, Eni's direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions have not shown a meaningful downward trend in the past five years, with emissions rebounding after a Covid-linked dip.

Greenpeace is involved in an ongoing climate change lawsuit against the Italian giant which hopes to ascertain its responsibility for past and future environmental harm caused by decades of fossil fuel operations.

Campaigners say the IOC should follow the precedent set in 1988 when tobacco advertising was banned from the Winter Olympics.

A report by researchers in Canada and Austria last month warned the list of locations able to host a Winter Games is set to shorten significantly in the coming years.

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