ICIMOD Deputy Director General, Izabella Koziell spoke to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the heads of states of mountain countries in a high-level roundtable chaired by the Hon Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal at COP28 UAE. Image: UNFCCC
Dubai, [13 December 2023] – Alarmed at the lack of urgency the past two weeks in Dubai, over 1000 cryosphere scientists have called on leaders at COP28 to heed signals from what they call “ground zero for climate change”: the Earth’s cryosphere, or snow and ice regions.
Calling the continued rise in CO2 from fossil fuels “insanity,” the scientists – many of them IPCC authors – urged the inclusion of “ice” factors explicitly in the Global Stocktake language. “Yesterday’s text refers to cryosphere just once, as one of many “ecosystems,” said Dr. Regine Hock, who coordinated the Mountains chapter of the IPCC’s 2019 Special Report on Oceans and the Cryosphere (SROCC). “But preserving ice sheets and glaciers by cutting fossil fuel emissions holds the key to continued existence for human communities worldwide.”
When cryosphere is taken seriously, “1.5°C is not merely preferable to 2°C. It is the only option,” says the scientists’ Call.
“Look at how much ice we’re losing today, at 1.2°C,” continued Dr. James Kirkham, who serves as the chief science advisor to the 23-nation “Ambition on Melting Ice” (AMI) High-level Group, which met here earlier this week and focuses on the disastrous consequences planet-wide for coastlines, water and food security. “Because of the huge global impacts of ice loss, even 1.5°C is too high,”
“Leaders need to understand that what happens in the cryosphere does not stay there: the impacts are global and mostly irreversible,” said Dr. Florence Colleoni, who speaks for dozens of Antarctic ice scientists with the international Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR). “And it’s all about how much CO2 we pump into the atmosphere from fossil fuels.”
The three scientists were among over two dozen who marked on Sunday the 10-meter sea-level rise line cutting straight across the COP28 venue. “If current emissions continue, this level could be reached in the late 2200’s: the IPCC has said that by 2300, even 15 meters cannot be ruled out,” added Colleoni, who joined scientists holding yellow “Caution” tape to mark the line.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has frequently cited these physical cryosphere boundaries in Dubai, where he returned on Monday to spur negotiations; he has visited Antarctica and the Himalayas in the past weeks, saying, “glaciers are retreating: we cannot.”
Dr Miriam Jackson, IPCC Lead Author with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, headquartered in Kathmandu, says: “By 2ºC, the human and ecosystem impacts in our region will be huge. We cannot adapt to these changes quickly enough and need to slow things down now.”
“The warming impact of CO2, around 80% from fossil fuel use, already has led to steep glacier and ice sheet loss causing global sea-level rise; reduction of water resources from snowpack; growing CO2 and methane emissions from thawing permafrost; dramatic reduction of sea ice…and stress on keystone polar marine species such as krill, salmon and cod,” says the Call.
“The current Global Stocktake text totally ignores these realities,” concluded Pam Pearson, a former diplomat and Director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. “Every time you see terms like “coastal communities,” “slow onset events,” “water availability,” even “loss and damage” – almost all of that is cryosphere. We need that term explicitly used and recognized throughout the GST text, because it makes ice-clear why we need to remain within 1.5°C by phasing out fossil fuel use as early as we possibly can.”
Or as the Call concludes, “The melting point of ice pays no attention to rhetoric, only to our actions.”??
Cryosphere Scientist available to speak remotely:
Arun Bhakta Shrestha, ICIMOD Senior Climate Change Specialist, arun.shrestha@icimod.org
Miriam Jackson, ICIMOD Senior Cryosphere Specialist and IPCC lead author (SROCC), miriam.jackson@cicimod.org
Jakob Steiner, Fellow at the Himalayan University Consortium ICIMOD and Hi-WISE Author, jakob.steiner@uni-graz.at
Cryosphere Scientist contacts currently in Dubai:
Regine Hock (IPCC, glaciers, snow): regine.hock@geo.uio.no, +47 41323826
Martin Sommerkorn (IPCC, polar regions), +47 92606995
Florence Colleoni (ice sheets, SLR): fcolleoni@ogs.it, +39 3402408644
James Kirkham (AMI Chief Scientist): james@iccinet.org, +44 7581560936
ICCI Director Pam Pearson: pam@iccinet.org +46 705752257
Media Contacts ICIMOD:
Annie Dare | annie.dare@icimod.org
Media Contacts ICCI:
Amy Imdieke | amy@iccinet.org +1 507321325
Irene Quaile | irene@iccinet.org
Cryosphere Scientist Call with Signatures: https://iccinet.org/cryosphere-call-to-cop28/
About ICIMOD
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), is a regional knowledge development and learning centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan – and based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Globalisation and climate change have an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people. ICIMOD aims to assist mountain people to understand these changes, adapt to them, and make the most of new opportunities, while addressing upstream-downstream issues. We support regional transboundary programmes through partnership with regional partner institutions, facilitate the exchange of experience, and serve as a regional knowledge hub. We strengthen networking among regional and global centres of excellence. Overall, we are working to develop an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem to improve the living standards of mountain populations and to sustain vital ecosystem services for the billions of people living downstream – now, and for the future.
