• Rise in temperatures, rise in sea level, increase in drought episodes, fall in snow cover.

    WWF France looked into the consequences that these major impacts of climate change would have on sports practice in metropolitan France.

  • By taking two scenarios: that of a world at + 2 ° C and another at + 4 ° C.

    The increase in temperatures alone could cause the loss of up to 24 days of sports practice in a world at + 2 ° C and up to two months in a scenario at + 4 ° C.

  • The NGO also anticipates more complex and costly management of gymnasiums, the relocation of a large number of nautical clubs, and a weakening of the economic model of French ski resorts.

What ski descent without snow?

Which rubgy match or which marathon at 40 or 45?

What nature sports in landscapes that have become arid?

In short, what sport in France in a world at + 2 ° C or + 4 ° C?

"Sport, like the rest of society, is directly impacted by climate change, and with it the practices of nearly 36 million French people", points out WWF France, which took an interest in the subject in a report published on Wednesday , with the financial support of the Ministry of Sports.

The NGO focused on studies of past climate impacts and projections of future climate changes, taking into account two scenarios of climate change.

The first of + 2 ° C compared to pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), which corresponds to the maximum temperature increase recommended by the Paris Agreement of 2015. The second, of + 4 ° C, which remains one of the probable scenarios if the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions continues.

Then, WWF France correlated these data with the current location of sports equipment, limiting itself to the metropolis, and with the sensitivity thresholds of practices to global warming.

Fewer and fewer sports days possible

The report focused on four major impacts of climate change: rising temperatures, rising sea levels, increasing drought episodes and falling snow levels.

The rise in temperatures alone could cause the loss of up to 24 days of sports practice in a world of + 2 ° C and up to two months in a world of + 4 ° C, points out WWF France. To arrive at this estimate, the NGO took into account the number of additional days at more than 32 ° C to be expected and beyond which the health of professional and amateur athletes is potentially endangered. In a scenario of global warming to + 2 ° C, it will be nine additional days on average, in metropolitan France, and up to 24 therefore in the south of France. And in a scenario at + 4 ° C, it will be 22 days on average throughout France and up to 66 days in the south of France.

On these days, the practice of sport will not be impossible, nor probably prohibited. But all the same not recommended. The WWF does not rule out the possibility of adapting the schedules either, by postponing the sessions in the morning or in the evening when the temperatures are lower. Be that as it may, the NGO warns against possible difficulties in the organization of practices, in particular those requiring access to sports equipment (gymnasiums, specific sports fields, athletics tracks). "More and more examples of sports competitions affected by temperatures demonstrate the urgency to consider these impacts and to act", points out in any case the report. The Australian Open is regularly affected by these episodes of heatwave. This was also the case, in France, of the Ironman of Nice in 2019 [the distances were shortened],or the French cycling championships in June 2019 in Loire-Atlantique.

Towards an increasingly expensive management of sports halls?

The increase in average temperatures, associated with increasingly frequent heat waves, also raises fears of reduced accessibility to collective sports halls in the future.

But also an increasingly complex and costly management of these rooms.

There are some 60,000 in France, most of which fall under the jurisdiction of local authorities.

They mostly date from before 2000, half of them even were put into service before 1987. “They were not always built with materials guaranteeing good insulation and adapted to high temperatures, the challenges of thermal comfort and health. having been rarely taken into account at the time of their construction ”, estimates the report.

Nautical clubs to be relocated, ski resorts under threat

Another risk of climate change is that of the rise in sea level. It has already risen by around 15 cm on a global scale during the 20th century and could still rise up to 1 meter or more. in a world at + 4 ° C, recalls WWF. Enough to threaten the current spaces of sporting practices (disappearance of beaches, destruction of hiking trails) or to make the relocation of sailing clubs essential. “One in seven located on the coast would be threatened in a world at + 2 ° C. That is to say 80 clubs, of which more than half in the Mediterranean. This would be a quarter of the clubs (131) in a scenario at + 4 ° C.

Winter sports are not spared, even if they are unevenly threatened, WWF believes. With the rise in temperatures, the snow cover of the six French massifs is compromised. Here again, the effects are already being felt, even if conditions vary greatly from year to year. Over the past twenty years, the snow depth has been on average 40% less than in the previous period, the report recalls. And the projections do not invite optimism. In the Alps in particular. At an altitude of 1,500 meters on average, a scenario of + 2 ° C would correspond to a reduction of 20% in the average thickness of the snowpack in winter. It would be up to 80% at + 4 ° C, details the report, specifying that this decrease in the amount of snow is added to a reduction in the snow period.

Enough to jeopardize the economic sustainability of the current 250 French winter sports resorts.

In a + 2 ° C scenario, only three Pyrenean resorts could still count on sufficient natural snow cover, the report estimates.

No more, neither in the Pyrenees, nor in the Alps, in a world at + 4 ° C.

"A first milestone in an analysis to be deepened"

Figures that give you food for thought? WWF does not hide the methodological biases that there may be in trying to anticipate the consequences on sports practice of climate change (see box). However, he presents his report as "a first step in an analysis to be deepened in the future". This is the first of its recommendations: "Anticipate, by acquiring tools for observing the impacts of climate change on sports practice". The NGO also recommends affirming the preservation of the environment as a fundamental value of sport. As fundamental as the fight against doping. "It is becoming more and more unacceptable that the practice, the performance and the sports spectacle can be done to the detriment of the planet", she insists.

WWF also calls on sport, like any other human activity, to make its ecological transition and even to condition and modulate all public and private funding for sport according to the commitments to preserve the environment made by the organizers.

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On the limits of the study, "we had to develop general hypotheses on the vulnerability of practices, which does not always correspond precisely to the reality of individual practices," illustrates the NGO.

For example, for the rise in temperatures, a threshold had to be chosen (32 ° C) beyond which the practice can have significant consequences on health.

Of course, the level of danger varies according to the physiology of each person and the level of intensity of the practice.

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