Glacier-mass changes are a reliable indicator of climate change. The worldwide network of glacier observers urges parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to boost international cooperation in monitoring these changes, and to include the results in the Paris agreement’s global stocktake.

Full version of the letter to the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid (COP25)
WGMS Letter of Concern to COP25

A shortened version was published as Nature Correspondence:
Zemp, M., Sajood, A.A., Pitte, P., van Ommen, T., Fischer, A., Soruco, A., Thomson, L., Schaefer, M., Li, Z., Ceballos Lievano, J.L., Cáceres Correa, B.E., Vincent, C., Tielidze, L., Braun, L.N., Ahlstrøm, A.P., Hannesdóttir, H., Dobhal, D.P., Karimi, N., Baroni, C., Fujita, K., Severskiy, I., Prinz, R., Usubaliev, R., Delgado-Granados, H., Demberel, O., Joshi, S.P., Anderson, B., Hagen, J.O., Dávila Roller, L.R., Gadek, B., Popovnin, V.V., Cobos, G., Holmlund, P., Huss, M., Kayumov, A., Lea, J.M., Pelto, M., and Yakovlev, A. (2019): Glacier monitoring tracks progress in limiting climate change. Nature, 576, p. 39.

In 2019, the World Glacier Monitoring Service celebrated its 125 years jubilee. The WGMS General Assembly was split into three regional meetings which allowed to focus on regional challenges and networks and to cut in half the related carbon footprint. The meetings attracted great media attention.

Selection of media reports

Photo by J. Alean www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/