Open letter to the organizers of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Narvik 2029
To CEO Knut-Eirik Dybdal and his team
March 5th, 2026
Dear organizers of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Narvik,
We congratulate you on getting to host the Championships in your beautiful town in 2029. With your snow covered mountains that rise majestically up from the sea, the competitions in Narvik will be an extraordinary experience both for athletes and the audience. It will be something spectacular!
We, 33 climate experts and ski enthusiasts from all over Europe, write to you from a place of deep love for snow and skiing, and with a great concern for our future generations. We cannot imagine a world where our children and grandchildren will not have the chance to experience the joy of playing in the snow and the awe of looking over vast snow-white landscapes.
Therefore, we applaud your high ambitions to be the most sustainable winter sports event ever, to set the standard for minimizing impacts on nature and to be a source of inspiration for forming a sustainable future. Your event will be a great platform to direct attention towards the future of winter sports and life in the Arctic in the era of climate change.
We endorse your commitment to sustainability, and we are eager to follow your work for the next-coming years. We trust that you will develop a state-of-the-art sustainable championship that can set the bar for all future winter sports and that can give Narvik the legacy of being a truly sustainable destination.
Our world is heating at an alarming pace and it is threatening not only our winters, but our lives. Science shows that we must stay below 1.5°C global warming compared to pre-industrial times for our planet to be able to provide safe conditions for life. While, right now, humanity is failing. We are moving towards around 2.6°C increase in global average temperature by 2100, to levels that no human being has ever experienced.
Climate models also project strong Arctic amplification: in Narvik and Northern Scandinavia, late century warming under high emissions is projected to reach 4.5 to 5.0°C in annual mean temperature (especially in winter), far above the global average. The number of ski days has already significantly declined in Norway since the 1960s, and is projected to continue to decrease dramatically by the end of the century – but with resolute and concerted action we can reduce this trend. That is why commitments like yours are so important. We all need to contribute to a healthy planet for generations to come.
Global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, the extraction and processing of natural resources and the weakening of our natural carbon sinks: our forests and seas. The most sustainable winter sports event ever has to steer away from these harmful practices.
We want to especially stress four necessary principles for achieving your ambitions:
1. Adopt a strategy for circularity and zero waste. Events are normally sources of single use materials, temporary constructions and large amounts of waste. But with just a little bit of planning, they don’t have to be. The Summer Olympics in Paris 2024 proved that, for example, food and drink containers can be reusable, temporary constructions can be disassembled and reused and that waste can be kept at a minimum. Steal with pride from their circular strategy, and make your event even more circular and waste free.
2. Provide electrified and shared transports. Norway is already a frontrunner in electric transports and the championships in Narvik can prove that this can be true all the way to the mountain tops. Seek collaborations with LKAB, ot.ṯT6Tthe Norwegian and Swedish Transport Administration and the operators of train lines in Northern Scandinavia to make sure the majority of visitors can come by train and use public transport while in Narvik. Establish fossil-free bus routes for the international visitors arriving at the Narvik Airport. Keep emissions from athlete travels and production logistics to a minimum. Learn from the Telemark World Cup in Trillevallen and exceed their achievements in reducing fossil fuel consumption.
3. Serve food for white winters. The food system is the main contributor to putting pressure on our planetary boundaries. A third of all food that is produced turns into waste. Keep building on the work of the FIS Ski World Cup in Åre where athletes are educated and served sustainable nutrition that powers peak athletic performance while reducing environmental impact.
4. Ban fossil sponsors. The future is clean and renewable and there is no room for promoting harmful products in a sustainable event. 55% of Norwegians agree that large-emission actors should not sponsor winter sports events such as the World Ski Championships in Narvik and The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report highlights that advertising fueling high-carbon consumption is acting as a barrier to climate action. In winter sports events such as Beitostölen in Norway and Vasaloppet in Sweden protests have led to these polluters discontinuing their sponsorships. Narvik could be ahead of that curve and partner up with more sustainable sponsors from the start.
Finally, we wish you the best of luck in preparing for and organizing the most sustainable winter event ever. We look forward to the excitement that the competitions will bring, and the pride of Narvik setting a new standard for winter sports events at a crucial point in time for our common future.
Respectfully,
Gabriel Arthur, Founder, Norr Agency; Editor-in-Chief, Suston Magazine
Josef Nyström Baksaas, IFMGA Mountain Guide, Tindevegleder
Sven Beyersdorff, Co-founder, Nordic Sustainability
Kjersti Eline Tønnessen Busch, Co-founder and CEO, SALT Lofoten
Alexander Crawford, Co-organizer, Tarfala Think Tank
Clara Edwards, Chair of the Board, Protect Our Winters Sweden
David Ekelund, Co-founder, ICEBUG
Anders Enetjärn, Founder, Ecogain
Julie Forchhammer, Co-founder, Klimakultur
Niclas Hällström, Director, WhatNext?
Erik Huss, Glaciologist, CEO, Husstainability AB
Emil Kringstad Johansson, Cross Country Skier & Former Member of the Swedish
National Ski Team
Anna Jonsson, New Weather Institute Sweden
Carl Lundberg, IFMGA Mountain Guide, Skitouring Scandinavia
Elin Larsson, Världsnaturfonden WWF
Annika Löwgren, Sustainability Strategist
Gustav Martner, Head of Creative, Greenpeace Nordic
Terese Nilsson, Physician, PhD Candidate, Rebel Mothers Sweden, Scientist Rebellion
Kalle Nilvér, Co-founder, GoClimate
Halvard Raavand, Acting Program Manager, Greenpeace Norway
Helena Rimfors, Guide, Jordnära upplevelser
Johan Rockström, Professor of Earth System Science
Björn Sandström, Professional Cross Country Skier
Michael Schragger, Founder & Director, The Sustainable Fashion Academy (SFA), The
Scandinavian Textile Initiative for Climate & Nature Action (STICA/STICA+)
Andrew Simms, Director, New Weather Institute, UK
Tor Jacob Solberg, Styreleder, Norsk Bonde- og Småbrukarlag
Brita Staal, Founder, North of Impact
Jan Stala, Managing Partner, Peak 63
Katy Stevens, Head of ESG, European Outdoor Group (EOG)
Per Espen Stoknes, Associate Professor, Sustainable Business
Inga Strümke, Associate Professor of AI
Sofia Sundström, CEO, Cradlenet
Marit Svarstad, IFMGA Mountain Guide, Tindevegleder
For questions regarding this open letter, please contact:
Sofia Sundström, sofia@cradlenet.se, +46709798830
