In a year of vanishing ice

2025 was a year defined by ice, not as something static and permanent, but as something precious, changing, and under threat. With the United Nations declaring 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, glaciers moved from the margins of climate conversations to the center of global attention. Scientists, policymakers, and communities across the world engaged more deeply on what glacier loss means, not only for mountain landscapes, but for water security, ecosystems, and billions of people downstream.

For GRID-Arendal, the year became an opportunity to do what we do best: translate science into stories that help people understand why these changes matter.

The International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation marked a turning point in how the world talks about the glaciers and cryosphere. The UN General Assembly’s declaration, supported by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, established 21 March as the first World Day for Glaciers and called for stronger global cooperation to understand and protect glaciers.

GRID-Arendal contributed to this by supporting partnerships and initiatives throughout the year, working with UN agencies, governments, researchers, and civil society to help communicate the urgency of glacier loss. The goal was to make the science visible, and make it meaningful.

One of the most important challenges in communicating glacier loss is that it can feel distant and abstract. Throughout 2025, GRID-Arendal helped bridge that gap through visual storytelling and accessible science communication.

Among the highlights:
International Year of Glaciers animation
A short film illustrating glacier retreat in iconic landscapes, from the Dolomites to Yosemite, helping audiences visualize how rapidly these frozen environments are changing.

Glaciers on the Edge: Preserving Our Global Heritage
A collaborative publication with UNESCO combining imagery, science, and human stories from glacier regions around the world.

These examples helped translate complex cryosphere science into narratives that resonate beyond scientific communities, bringing glacier stories to classrooms, media outlets, and decision-makers worldwide.

Glaciers may seem remote, but their impacts travel far beyond mountain peaks. In many regions, mountains function as the planet’s “water towers,” supplying up to 60 percent of the world’s freshwater. Meltwater from glaciers feeds rivers that support agriculture, hydropower, and cities far downstream. But these natural water systems are changing.

A new analysis from UNEP and GRID-Arendal, Mountains in Motion: Global Linkages from Ridge to River, highlights how rapidly melting glaciers and shifting mountain ecosystems are reshaping water security and disaster risk.

Across the Hindu Kush Himalaya for example, these changes are already becoming visible. Expanding glacial lakes are increasing the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), while changing snow and ice patterns are disrupting water supplies that sustain agriculture and hydropower. At the same time, shifts in glacier melt are altering river systems that support hundreds of millions of people downstream.

Scientists warn that many glacier-fed basins may soon reach “peak water”, the point at which glacier melt temporarily increases river flows before entering a long-term decline as ice reserves shrink. For countries such as Nepal, glacier loss is therefore not only an environmental concern. It is an emerging challenge for water resources, food security, and disaster risk management.

The urgency surrounding glaciers is also beginning to translate into political global action. At the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), countries adopted a resolution calling for stronger protection of glaciers and the wider cryosphere, particularly in mountain regions where climate impacts are accelerating.

The resolution reflects a growing recognition that glacier loss intersects with multiple global challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water security and disaster risk management.

Protecting the cryosphere is increasingly understood as part of addressing the triple planetary crisis.

Glaciers are not only scientific indicators of climate change. For many communities, they are sources of freshwater, cultural identity, and livelihood. Throughout the year, GRID-Arendal worked with partners to ensure these perspectives were included in global conversations, from exhibitions and public events to collaborations with researchers and Indigenous community representatives.

By connecting local experiences of glacier change with global science and policy discussions, the stories of glacier regions became more visible and more human.

While the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation helped raise awareness, it also made clear how much work remains. The coming years will require stronger monitoring of glaciers, deeper scientific collaboration, and policies that help communities adapt to changing water systems.

These efforts are now being carried forward through the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025–2034), a global initiative aimed at strengthening research, cooperation, and public awareness about the planet’s frozen regions.
GRID-Arendal will continue contributing by doing what it has done throughout the International Year of Glaciers: turning complex science into stories that inspire, helps understanding and action.

Glaciers may be disappearing faster than ever before. But the movement to understand and protect them is growing. Across scientific networks, international policy forums, and mountain communities, a shared message is emerging: What happens in the mountains does not stay in the mountains.

And the choices the world makes today will shape the future of water, ecosystems, and climate resilience for generations to come.