“Winter’s Tale”: Greenpeace makes a devastating verdict on the FIS

Accordingly, Kitzbühel, Schladming, Adelboden and Sölden as well as the flights in the Alpine World Cup are already responsible for 85 percent of emissions. Greenpeace expert Ursula Bittner speaks of “greenwashing at its best”. “The FIS tells winter tales when it claims to protect the climate or even to be climate-positive,” said the economic expert from Greenpeace Austria, according to a broadcast. The background is that the World Ski Federation had an “Events Emission Estimation” carried out by an external company in 2021 – an estimate of the emission figures that occur across all sports in one season. This showed that the FIS allegedly emits 57,965 tons of CO2 per year with all its competitions including the associated travel. A total of 7,920 events were examined, and the FIS only recently published the results.

Greenpeace then had the data checked by the agency “Mission Zero”, which specializes in CO2 footprints, with Schütter providing his own records for the 2022/23 World Cup season. The result: the four top alpine events in Kitzbühel, Schladming, Sölden and Adelboden alone would cause 10,874 tonnes of CO2 including air travel – this corresponds to 85 percent of the 12,752 tonnes of CO2 reported by the FIS for all alpine skiing. But that’s not counting more than 30 other World Cup events, over 300 continental events and hundreds of smaller races.

Especially with the mass events in alpine skiing and ski jumping, the basic assumptions about the trips are not correct. The FIS analysis assumes, for example, that 60 percent of all fans travel locally and thus cover approx. 50 kilometers in one direction. However, this is not realistic for major events such as Schladming or Kitzbühel. At the same time, some factors relevant to the CO2 balance, such as waste, floodlights or overnight stays on the part of the athletes, were missing from the calculations of the world association. In addition, all preparations for the season, which numerous alpine teams in South America and New Zealand are doing, are not included in the calculation. All in all, the true CO2 values ​​would therefore far exceed the FIS figures.

Greenpeace is calling on the FIS and its President Johan Eliasch to decide on “real climate protection measures” at their congress on Thursday. The claim that the FIS is “climate positive” must be dropped immediately. In a statement to the APA – Austria Press Agency, the world association said that together with the London-based agency “Planet Mark” they followed a “strict methodology” that “led us to the results we presented”. .

In addition, with regard to the next season, concrete steps have already been decided to promote climate protection. In the future, a “reward system” will be implemented to reward the World Cup organizers who make the greatest progress from one season to the next. The position of Sustainability Director was filled with the environmental sociologist Susanna Sieff. “Climate change is an existential threat to our sport. That’s why we feel obliged to protect the climate on which our sport depends,” said an FIS spokeswoman.