Media release

From: Springer Nature

Climate change: Climate change threatens European ski slopes (N&V)

Around half of ski resorts in 28 European countries are projected to be at a very high risk of a lack of snow supply under 2 °C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, an analysis published in Nature Climate Change finds. The findings also examine the potential and impact of artificial snowmaking to counter this decline.

Europe accounts for about 50% of the world’s ski resorts, which are dependent on reliable and predictable snow cover, making them highly vulnerable to climate change. One way for ski resorts to respond to these changes is to invest in artificial snowmaking, which could ensure a reliable snow supply for parts of the year in some areas. The effects of climate change and the potential for snowmaking have been assessed for individual resorts or for some areas within Europe. However, a larger-scale analysis on the potential impacts of snowmaking has not been performed.

Hugues François and colleagues provide a comprehensive analysis of 2,234 ski resorts across 28 European countries to assess changes in snow cover under 2 °C and 4 °C of warming. They find that 53% and 98% of the resorts face a very high risk of insufficient snow supply for 2 °C and 4 °C global warming levels, respectively, with large regional variations. To assess the potential and impacts of artificial snowmaking, the authors quantify the effect of different percentages of ski resorts that use snowmaking on snow coverage and resource use. They find that when assuming that snowmaking is applied to 50% of a resort’s area, the fraction of resorts at risk to some degree is reduced; however, 27% and 71% of resorts would still be affected by substantial snow shortages under 2 °C and 4 °C of warming, respectively. They indicate that the creation of artificial snow will increase the demands on water and electricity, as well as increase carbon emissions for resorts equipped with the technology.

The authors highlight that these predictions for snowmaking are based on simplified assumptions, in particular, on the coverage and the resource demand of snowmaking, and their findings should not be considered definitive. Yet the findings provide means to better account for the impacts of climate change on the ski tourism industry and provide insights into the relationships between adaptation and mitigation of climate change for this sector, including the potential for maladaptation.

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Springer Nature is committed to boosting the visibility of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and relevant information and evidence published in our journals and books. The research described in this press release pertains to SDG 13 (Climate Action). More information can be found here.