Climate change is “an existential threat” to winter sports. To tackle this, the world ski governing body has joined forces with the UN weather organization to benefit from its expertise.
Ski resorts around the world are increasingly facing the realities of a warming climate, its lack of snow, its shorter seasons and its economic repercussions for regions that rely on winter tourism.
Last year, a study by French and Austrian scientists found that if there were 2 to 4 degrees of warming, 53% to 98% of the 2,234 ski resorts examined would be at very high risk of snow shortage. In Switzerland, glaciers have already lost nearly 60% of their volume since 1850.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) therefore hopes that its cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), announced on Thursday, will help it give a future to winter sports. “The climate crisis is obviously not restricted to the FIS, nor to sport for that matter: it places humanity at a crossroads, neither more nor less,” underlines the president of the FIS, Johan Eliasch, in a press release.
Existential threat
But “simply put, it’s true that climate change is an existential threat to skiing and snowboarding,” he says. “We would be failing in our duty by not doing everything possible” to take into account the lessons of science and “objective analyses,” explains the man for whom questions of environmental protection are not a discovery.
Climate change poses a serious challenge to skiing, which already uses artificial snow almost systematically for most World Cup races, world championships and the Olympics. During the 2023/24 season, FIS organized 616 World Cup races across all disciplines, at 166 venues. No less than 26 races were canceled for reasons related to weather conditions.
What concrete benefits for this collaboration?
The collaboration with the UN weather organization mainly aims to exchange knowledge to better understand the impact of climate change and to optimize the use of forecasting tools for more effective snow management. Although she cannot solve the problem alone, she could mitigate its consequences.
We also observe that after the active commitment of athletes like the Swiss Daniel Yule in raising awareness of climate issues, the FIS is starting to take its responsibilities. It now offers an internal roadmap for a more sustainable and inclusive snow sports ecosystem.
>> Watch Daniel Yule’s interview on climate change on the Mise au Point show:
Radio subject: Patrick Délétroz
Web adaptation: agencies/Miroslav Mares
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