ISLAMABAD:  The first ‘World Day of Glaciers’ being observed on Friday will set a platform dialogue and action regarding the state of the world’s glaciers and the impacts of the melting cryosphere on global water, food and energy security.

Observing the day in Pakistan, the government will launch the country’s first ‘Glacier Conservation Strategy’, reinforcing collective efforts to protect these vital ecosystems.

Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb will be chief guest at a glaciers day event being organised by the ministry of climate change and environmental coordination in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Climate change is affecting the timing, frequency and location of geohazard events with potential cascading effects. Slope stability and flood risk can be impacted by glacial recession and permafrost thaw in high-mountain and sub-Arctic regions. 

Continuous glacier retreat also leads to extreme events and new and evolving disaster risks for downstream populations and vulnerable transport and energy infrastructure such as glacier lake outburst floods, landslides or enhanced erosion and sediment.

Glaciers are crucial for regulating the global climate and providing freshwater, essential for billions of people. However, due to climate change, driven mainly by human activities since the 1800s, these vital resources are rapidly melting.

The United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to highlight the importance of glaciers and ensure that those relying on them, and those affected by cryospheric processes, receive the necessary hydrological, meteorological, and climate services. These efforts underscore the critical role mountain regions play as a key source of global freshwater and ecosystem services.

Almost 70 per cent of Earth’s freshwater is stored as snow or ice. Run-off from glaciers, snow and ice are essential for drinking water, agriculture, industry and clean energy production. Climate and cryosphere change impact the water cycle, including changing the amount and timing of glacier melt and snowmelt discharge, groundwater recharge and low flows, and contribute to sea level rise.

As glaciers continue to shrink and snow cover changes, less water availability is expected to contribute to greater competition for water resource, especially in seasonally dry regions. Glaciers that are beyond their ‘Peak water’, which is the point in time where meltwater runoff is at its maximum level, will gradually provide less and less contribution to downstream water resources.

The ‘State of Global Water Resources 2023’ reports the largest mass loss in 50 years with some regions experiencing double the predicted decline.

While this temporarily increases downstream water, the long-term loss threatens water supplies for billions, disrupts ecosystems, raises sea levels, and destabilises agriculture and industry.

Unesco studies confirm that a third of glaciers in world heritage sites are set to disappear by 2050. Snowmelt and thawing permafrost, critical for water supplies, vary globally due to topography and climate. Limited data and complex glacier-climate interactions hinder accurate predictions, delaying policy responses.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025