UN and FIS united in the face of climate threat to winter sports

(Keystone-ATS) Climate change threatens winter sports in the future. Faced with this situation, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Ski Federation (FIS) signed a five-year agreement in Geneva to relay the problem to populations.

Initiatives will be launched between scientists and athletes. Just under 5% of FIS competitions have recently been abandoned due to weather conditions.

But “the spoiled winter holidays and canceled sporting events” are only a small effect of climate change, the WMO Secretary General noted on Thursday. The retreat of glaciers and the reduction in snow and ice cover are already having significant repercussions for ecosystems, populations and the economy in the affected regions, she insists.

And these will deteriorate further throughout the world in the next hundreds of years. WMO and national institutions will relay meteorological indications to lead to concrete changes.

The FIS recognizes that its activities are ultimately threatened. We must “follow up on the indications given by scientific studies and objective analyses,” she believes. A first meeting should help ski resorts better anticipate the effects of climate change on snow.

According to a study last year in dozens of countries, a warming of 2°C would threaten more than half of ski resorts with a shortage of snow. With 4°C, almost everyone would be exposed to this situation, she also said.