As the world is gathered in Trondheim for the 2025 World Ski Championships, Norway stands at a crossroads. This event is more than a celebration of sport — it is a global stage where the country can either reinforce its role as Europe’s biggest fossil fuel producer or rise to the occasion and lead a just transition away from oil, gas and goal production.

Trondheim’s mayor has already recognized the need for change, calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Yet, instead of following the city’s leadership and using this moment to amplify bold climate solutions, championship organizers have given center stage to Equinor — Norway’s national oil giant and one of the world’s biggest climate polluters.

It is a stunning contradiction. While Norway promotes itself as a sustainable nation, its leaders granted 62 oil and gas drilling licenses to energy firms in 2024 and are planning to keep expanding oil and gas investments for 2025— decisions that will exacerbate the very crisis threatening winter sports. This is not climate leadership. It is greenwashing. And it must stop.

A recent report from the International Energy Agency showed, again, that the world already has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand through 2050. Norway is one of the countries who committed at the international climate negotiations to phase out fossil fuels. You don’t phase something out by building more of it. 

As a Canadian climate policy advisor, I have witnessed first-hand the shifting nature of our winters. When scientists and athletes warn that skiing is among the most climate-vulnerable sports, I hear them loud and clear. Rising temperatures and shrinking snow seasons are already threatening the future of many snow sports. Athletes know this. Fans know this. And yet, the fossil fuel industry continues to use sporting events as a platform to delay the transition away from oil, gas and coal production. Perhaps they should stop sponsoring the events with their record profits and instead make a plan to help protect what we love by transitioning to cleaner, safer renewable energy. 

Equinor is not a climate leader — it is a laggard. The company’s decision to roll back renewable energy investments and double down on oil and gas production — on the very day that championship organizers dismissed local activists’ calls to cut fossil fuel sponsorship — makes this clear. No amount of advertising or corporate sponsorship can hide the reality: Equinor and the whole fossil fuel industry is fueling the crisis that threatens Norwegian winters, Norwegian livelihoods, and the global climate.

We must ask ourselves: Is it morally acceptable for fossil fuel companies to hijack major cultural events to clean up their image while continuing to pollute the planet? What message does it send when the most prestigious ski event of the year celebrates sustainability while being bankrolled by an industry profiting from planetary destruction?

Norway has a choice: It can continue as climate hypocrite and Europe’s biggest fossil fuel investor, or it can become the world’s first major oil producer to commit to a planned, fair, managed phase-out of fossil fuels. It can defend the status quo, or it can support or even join the growing coalition of nations calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. It cannot do both.

Athletes Speak Out

Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, largely because of its oil and gas exports. Unlike other fossil fuel-producing nations, Norway’s wealth is not concentrated in private hands but in its state-controlled sovereign wealth fund, which owns nearly 1.5 percent of all listed companies globally and is one of the ten most powerful financial actors that could drive a fossil fuel phase-out.

Norway has an unparalleled opportunity to show the world how to fund a just transition by investing in workers, communities, sustainable energy solutions, and standing with the nations and communities already leading the fight to overcome our fossil fuel addiction. Instead, it clings to the past, prioritizing short-term profits over long-term planetary survival.

The call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is gaining momentum. Sixteen countries from the Pacific, Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Latin America have already endorsed it. More than 130 cities, 3,500 civil society organizations, 101 Nobel Laureates, thousands of scientists, more than one million individuals, and powerful institutions — including the World Health Organization and the European Parliament — support the initiative. The movement is growing because people understand a simple truth: We cannot end the climate crisis without stopping the expansion of fossil fuels.

Some athletes have spoken out already, trying to turn the 2025 World Ski Championships into a moment when a global sports event finally refuses to be a tool for fossil fuel greenwashing. If the championship organizers refuse to act, then the people must. From the civil rights movement to the anti-apartheid struggle, athletes and sports events have always played a role in challenging injustice. The climate crisis is no different.

Protest is not the problem. Fossil fuel expansion is. I urge Norwegians — and everyone who cares about the future of our planet — to stand up. Demand that Equinor’s sponsorship be dropped. Demand that Norway commit to a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Demand that your government stop funding destruction and start leading a just energy transition that protects the winters we love.

Tzeporah Berman is founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.