World Heritage Glaciers Under Threat

Highlights From World Heritage Glaciers Report

What is World Heritage Glaciers

• Around 18,600 glaciers have been identified in 50 World Heritage sites. These glaciers span an area of about 66,000 km², representing almost 10% of the Earth’s glacierized area.
• They include the highest (next to Mt. Everest), the longest (in Alaska), and the last remaining glaciers in Africa, amongst others, giving a representative overview of the general situation of glaciers in the world.

World Heritage Glaciers in a Changing Climate

• Accelerated glacial retreat: The report highlights that the world heritage glaciers have been retreating at an accelerating rate since 2000. They are losing on average some 58 billion tonnes of ice every year —equivalent to the total annual volume of water consumed in France and Spain together.
• Sea level rise: The accelerated ice loss from the world heritage glaciers is contributing to almost 5% of global observed sea-level rise.
• Glacial disappearance: The report concludes that glaciers in a third of the 50 World Heritage sites are condemned to disappear by 2050, regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases.

Examples of Endangered World Heritage Glaciers By Region

Way Forward

• The most important protective measure to counteract substantial glacier retreat worldwide is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• If emissions are drastically cut to limit global warming to 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial levels, glaciers in two-thirds of World Heritage sites could be saved.
• At site level, adaptive measures need to be strengthened to respond to inevitable glacier changes in the near future. These include:
  • Identifying knowledge gaps and improving monitoring networks,
  • Designing and implementing early warning and disaster risk reduction measures,
  • Making glaciers a focus of targeted policy,
  • Promoting knowledge exchange, stakeholder engagement and communication.
• The successful implementation of these measures requires the mobilization of key stakeholders (e.g., governments, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and the private sector) to develop sustainable financing and investments, notably through the establishment of an international fund for glacier research and monitoring.

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