World Ski Federation and UN Weather Agency work together to help winter sports plan for climate change

GENEVA (AP) — Facing a long-running crisis in winter sports due to climate change, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation teamed up with the United Nations weather agency on Thursday.

The initial five-year partnership between the FIS and the World Meteorological Organization aims to help national ski associations, venues and race organizers better understand the weather forecast for dealing with natural and artificial snow. An online meeting is scheduled for November 7th.

The Switzerland-based organizations said in a joint statement: “Winter sports and tourism face a bleak future due to climate change and warmer temperatures.”

The FIS said weather problems forced it to cancel 26 of its 616 World Cups last season in the disciplines of alpine and cross-country skiing, snowboard park and pipe, freestyle skiing and ski jumping.

“Spoiled winter holidays and canceled sporting events are literally the tip of the climate change iceberg,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement.

FILE – Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), speaks during a press conference at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, on the state of the global climate in 2023. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, file)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Martial Trezzini

Event organizers have long relied on using local water resources to create artificial snow for course preparation, and it is common to see broadcasts of races on a white ribbon through brown and green forests and fields.

“The climate crisis is obviously much bigger than the FIS or sport,” said its president Johan Eliasch. “It is a real crossroads for humanity.

“However, it is true that, put simply, climate change represents an existential threat to skiing and snowboarding.”

As global temperatures rise, the International Olympic Committee said only ten countries could have a “climate-reliable” chance of hosting snow events at the Winter Games by 2040.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Games relied entirely on artificial snow to host Alpine races about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of the city in mountains where there is almost no natural snowfall.

Saudi Arabia is building a ski resort with an artificial lake near the futuristic city of Project Neom as it prepares to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

In Switzerland, the Alpine glaciers have lost around 60% of their volume since 1850, according to the Federal Weather Office.

“Thawing of frozen ground in mountainous, arctic and subarctic regions has a direct impact on the stability of the infrastructure built on it and contributes to increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere,” the WMO said.

Less snow falls at lower elevations up to 800 meters (2,600 feet) and the number of snowfall days has halved since 1970, the Geneva-based U.N. agency said.

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