POW Launches Petition on Environmental Record of FIS

21st October 2023

Last modified on October 24th, 2023

It follows images of excavators on a glacier in Zermatt preparing an area for a World Cup ski race next month. More than 27,000 people have signed it.

Protect Our Winters, POW, has shared images on Facebook of excavators on the Theodul glacier in Zermatt.

It appears that snow from the glacier is being used to help build the race course in preparation for the race run by the International Ski & Snowboard Federation, FIS.

Last year, a lack of snow led to the cancellation of the race.

The petition calls for:

Implementation of a target-based sustainability strategy
Full publishing of the organisation’s environmental impact
Using the organizations political impact to advocate for climate action
Changing the competition calendar to account for travel impact & climate change

“The FIS still schedules races far too early in the season, misleading claims of climate positivity are still in place, and FIS’s published carbon footprint calculation is wildly inaccurate,” said a statement from POW.

“It is clear that FIS has done far too little to be the climate leader we need at this critical time.

“The Federation, event organizers and host destinations must act as role models and show that they take the current challenges seriously.”

“This year, the resources deployed to ensure that the event actually takes place are beyond the bounds of acceptability and common sense. The images of the shovels digging up the glacier to form the slope that will welcome the skiers are shocking. Such a spectacle is incomprehensible at a time when glacial melt is accelerating and glaciers have lost 10% of their volume in the last two years alone.”

See here for the Petition from POW

FIS is yet to respond.

The race is set to take place on November 11-12, 2023.

The ‘Gran Becca’ course will be the first FIS World Cup cross-border race and is the ‘Speed Opening’ of the FIS Alpine World Cup calendar.