As the Summer Olympics have been getting underway in Paris, France has also been poised to win the bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. On Wednesday, July 24, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to hold this international event in the French Alps, “with conditions.” Between now and October 1, the French government and the two regions behind the project, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (southeast-central) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (southeast), still have to provide the necessary financial guarantees.
If the 2030 Olympics are held in France, three of the five Olympic villages will be constructed − in Bozel (Savoie), Briançon (Hautes-Alpes) and Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) − to house a total of 3,450 beds. The Côte d’Azur capital would also be equipped with a new ice rink. This announcement generated controversy in June, as the land chosen had been slated for the construction of hundreds of public housing units. High-altitude roadway projects have also been planned for reaching the competition sites. These would be spread across four areas: Haute-Savoie (cross-country skiing, biathlon), Savoie (alpine skiing), Briançon (freestyle skiing) and Nice (ice sports), per the report from the Future Host Commission, the IOC delegation responsible for evaluating the French bid, which was submitted to the IOC in June. The total organizational budget is on the order of €2 billion.
The organizers have estimated the event’s carbon footprint to be “between 689,000 tonnes and 804,000 tonnes of CO₂.” Yet mountainous areas like the Alps have already been warming at a rate two to three times faster than the rest of the globe. The Future Host Commission stated that it promises to “limit the environmental impact” of the competition, proposing that 93% of venues will be already existing or temporary and to build low-emission infrastructure and deploy hydrogen-powered buses.
“It’s greenwashing,” said Anne Lassman-Trappier, president of France Nature Environment in Haute-Savoie. The announcement has provoked outrage and concern from other organizations as well. Anna Logues (who uses a pseudonym), co-founder of the No JO (“No Olympic Games”) association, decried it as an “ecocidal decision.” “The construction of luxury hotels and road infrastructure will lead to heavy [use of] concrete,” she predicted. “The arrival of spectators and athletes will generate road and air traffic, as well as air pollution.”
The organizations have grown all the more concerned given that the Alps have already been facing a number of environmental problems, such as declining snow cover, drought in summer and winter, melting glaciers and threats to biodiversity. “We chose the marmot as the mascot for our collective. This animal is already threatened with extinction because of global warming, and in particular because of the decrease in snow depth,” said Logues with dismay. Given that the Alps have lost almost a month’s snowfall over the last 50 years, “the use of artificial snow will be unavoidable if the Olympics are held in the Alps,” said Lassman-Trappier. Tensions among various water users have already escalated.
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