Tourism operators in the Alps are working to reduce the climate footprint on the region – but it is a difficult fight that can sometimes feel like a losing battle. 

CGTN Europe speaks to Shouro Dasgupta, a researcher at RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment in Venice, Italy. He talks about the myriad climate issues impacting the Alps, as well as the hidden consequences of climate change on migration and different communities across the world. 

Policy is paramount

"It's more about adaptation now than mitigation," says Dasgupta, when asked about how the Alps and those who work in the mountain range can fight global warming.

Discussing what tourism operators will be dealing with in the near future, he says: "They will be facing more winters with less snow, which will increase their costs."

Expanding the adaptation and mitigation issue, Dasgupta says there needs to be more work towards diversification of tourism and the revenue generated by the industry in collaboration with respective governments. 

"Some really cool adaptation is already taking place, so some parts of the Alpine glaciers are being covered by plastic ice sheets and some of the resorts are already working with insurance companies and similar directives to protect them and to make them more adaptive to climate change." 

Despite this, Dasgupta also says adaption comes with its own costs and limitations, which he says is where government policy is increasingly important.

A migration decision

When asked about the future of climate change-induced migration, Dasgupta says that while it is a real issue, environmental migration is not the only problem. 

He says a shift away from the area caused by conflicts and income reduction issues is happening already and is being exacerbated by climate change. 

"Climate change is pushing people over the cliff in areas where migration is already a critical factor. 

"In terms of climate-induced migration we do need to understand always and think about the fact that migration is a complex household – it requests funding. There is the issue of poverty traps but there is no doubt that climate change is pushing people towards the migration decision even faster." 

Income loss and gender inequality

Dasgupta also says climate change is affecting different communities in multiple ways across the world. 

"Whether it is in terms of heat-stress impact on labor supply and labor productivity, whether it is extreme temperature events and increasing numbers of floods affecting agricultural yield then agricultural income," he says.

"Whether it is increasing water scarcity due to reduced precipitation and rainfall, you're talking about water scarcity in developing countries where you don't have running water, women are in charge of getting water for household use and women are having to spend more and more time fetching water for their households, which means they have less time to allocate to their labor."

Dasgupta explains: "Climate change is increasing both income and gender inequality across the world and it's not just in the developing and the third world countries."