Concluding that the climate talks have failed to address the long-lasting global impacts of glacier and ice sheet loss, the mountain and polar groups at COP26 have sought an immediate COP26 decision. Spanning the entire global “cryosphere” (snow and ice regions), from the poles to High Mountain Asia, the ‘Third Pole’, these research, environmental and indigenous organizations have criticized the lack of inclusion of the Earth’s cryosphere and the dire global impacts that will result as the final decision texts emerge in Glasgow.
The statement issued on November 10 by organizations including the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, WWF-Arctic Programme, the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute (ICCI), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) reads:
“The real implications of this science for climate goals remain so poorly understood by governments that an entire day should be devoted to their impacts, especially as regards thresholds and tipping points,”
Concerned that the nations in High Mountain Asia are already seeing the effects of glacier and snowpack loss, Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of ICIMOD, stated,
“What these negotiations lack is an understanding that these changes will not be temporary. The higher the temperature, the greater the permanent damage.” It is much harder to grow back a glacier than to keep it from disappearing in the first place and these losses of water resources will be irreversible, he added.
Dr. Martin Sommerkorn, IPCC SROCC author of the WWF Arctic Programme, highlighted that for too long our planet’s frozen elements have been absent from the climate debate at the UNFCCC even though their crucial role in determining the future for more than a billion people and our climate is becoming ever clearer. He urged that the UNFCCC must urgently create space for parties and stakeholders to discuss actions to be taken in response to this cryosphere crisis.
Dr. Robert DeConto, a leading researcher with one of the groups, SCAR, who attended the conference last week noted that negotiators may think they know about melting ice caps but what they do not realize is that the impacts are essentially permanent on human timescales and catastrophic for humanity. Once the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet begins, it will be effectively impossible to halt, agreed Jonathan Bamber, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre.
Similarly, Dr. Rachael Treharne of the Woodwell Climate Research Center stated that thawing Arctic permafrost makes carbon that has been locked in the deep freezer for millennia vulnerable for release into the atmosphere. It is critical that international mitigation policies address this catastrophic regional and global hazard, she added.
Pam Pearson, Director ICCI, was of the view that this science is so clear yet complex, and the changes so drastic and permanent, that more dialogue is essential. The questions asked by governments during the discussion of the latest IPCC report last week underscore that this issue needs more than a 15-minute presentation, she commented.
Concluding that the Polar Regions are no longer an early warning signal for climate change, Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, said,
“Instead, they are now a driver of climate change and this reality needs to be better understood.”
