2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics sites continue to feel the impact of climate change concerns - NBC Connecticut
Winter Olympics sites are already feeling climate change impact - NBC Connecticut
The International Olympic Committee cited concerns over climate change on Friday for its wish to pick two Winter Olympics hosts next July — putting Salt Lake City quickly into play for the 2034 edition.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the Olympic body aims to pick hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games at its meeting on the eve of the Paris Games next year.
Sweden, Switzerland and France have been working on possible bids for the 2030 edition and Salt Lake City officials have long targeted 2034. That would avoid the United States hosting back-to-back Olympics after the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The double award proposal by the Bach-chaired IOC executive board must get approval by the full membership at their annual meeting that opens Sunday. That should be a formality.
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The IOC has declining options for Winter Games hosts with Bach suggesting only 15 national Olympic committees across three continents meet the criteria: that they have at least 80% of existing venues for snow sports and a “climate-reliable” outlook to host snow events in future decades.
“We need to address very quickly this dramatic impact of climate change on winter sport,” Bach said.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.