By Sudipto Ganguly
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee executive board on Friday approved a proposal to pursue a double allocation of two successive Winter Games in 2030 and 2034 due to concerns over the threat of climate change on snow sports.
With temperatures rising across the globe, natural snow is becoming less plentiful in some regions and water availability for snowmaking is falling as a result of climate change, putting the global snow sport industry at risk.
By 2040 only 10 nations would be able to host the snow sports of the Olympic Winter and Paralympic Games, according to preliminary results of studies by the IOC’s future host commission for Winter Games.
“We need to address this dramatic impact of climate change,” IOC President Thomas Bach told a press conference in Mumbai on the second day of the executive board meeting. “This is a very complex issue and to address this in a proper way we need some more time.
“This is one of the reasons why the future host commission is proposing to get the opportunity for a double allocation of two successive Olympic Winter Games 2030 and 2034.”
Bach said that the executive board agreed to the double-award proposal and it will be put to the IOC Session for further discussions. The IOC session will be held between Oct. 15-17, also in Mumbai.
The IOC executive board in November will have further discussions on the proposal with a view to have the election for the hosts of 2030 and 2034 Winter Games by the next IOC Session in 2024, in the week leading up to the summer Olympics in Paris.
Venues vying to hold the 2030 Games include Salt Lake City in the United States, Sweden, Switzerland and France.
Last year’s Beijing Games became the first Winter Olympics to use virtually 100% artificial snow by deploying more than 100 snow generators and 300 snow-making guns working flat out to cover the ski slopes.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
