The president of the International Ski Federation has apologised after an interview in which he questioned climate change and said he preferred countries run by dictators to host competitions.

In an interview published in the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger earlier this week, Gian Franco Kasper said “dictators can organize [big] events ... without asking the people’s permission”. He added that “from the business side, I say: I just want to go to dictatorships, I do not want to argue with environmentalists.”

The 75-year-old, who has been president of the federation since 1998, and was a member of the IOC until last year, said his comments had been as a result of a “misunderstanding” explaining they “were not meant to be taken literally but this was not clear in the final story.”

He also referred to “so-called” climate change in the interview. When asked to elaborate on his beliefs, he referred to cold temperatures at last year’s Winter Olympics. “We have snow, sometimes even a lot of it. I was in Pyeongchang for the Olympiad. We had -35C. Everybody who came up to me shivering I greeted with, ‘Welcome to global warming’.” He added that immigrants were to blame for the decline of winter sports in Switzerland. “The second generation of immigrants has nothing to do with skiing,” he said. “There are no ski camps anymore.”

Kasper has made controversial statements in the past. In 2005, he said he was opposed to women competing in the ski jump. “Don’t forget, it’s like jumping down from, let’s say, about two meters on the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.”

Kasper’s latest comments came as the skiing world championships take place in Sweden. Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal called Kasper’s remarks “stupid” and “complete gibberish”.