‘There is no magic wand’: How one IOC presidential candidate is planning to tackle climate change

Of the seven candidates running to be the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Swedish-British billionaire Johan Eliasch is something of an outlier.

The 62-year-old president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) was a surprise entry into the race to replace Thomas Bach last year, shortly after he became a member of the IOC - a prerequisite for the role. 

In his bid to beat World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe and other contenders in March, Eliasch is making the most of his business background and track record on climate issues. 

“For the Olympics, this [the climate crisis] is a big topic because it is incumbent on mankind to address this. And we're so much bigger than just sport,” Eliasch tells Euronews Green. 

The IOC’s next president will be elected via a secret ballot in Greece, and be the face of the Olympic Games’s guardian organisation for at least the next eight years.

The former CEO of sports equipment company Head, Eliasch has used his wealth and financial nous to put a focus on tackling deforestation over the last 20 years. He bought a 1,600 square kilometres tract of Amazonian rainforest in 2005 and co-founded the charity Cool Earth the following year - which transfers cash to rainforest communities, supporting them to resist logging companies. 

Protecting biodiversity is “very close to my heart,” Eliasch says. Despite being a big Conservative donor in the UK, he left the party to serve as a special advisor to Gordon Brown’s Labour government in 2007, tasked with carrying out a review into deforestation and clean energy.

He also chaired the technology and innovation advisory group as part of the UK’s Net Zero Review in 2021.

But does this impressive green side of his