Earth’s ice is on fire, with many glaciers becoming extinct by the end of the century. To safeguard our planet’s glaciers, mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of their rapid melting and protect their biodiversity, scientists from EPFL, ETH Zurich and Universität Innsbruck initiated the Glacier Stewardship Program. More than 20 other universities and research institutions worldwide are part of the initiative. The Glacier Stewardship Program aligns with the United Nations’ declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and runs parallel to the UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Research (2025–2034). 

Glacial ice stores 70% of Earth’s freshwater and the more than 200,000 glaciers around the world underpin the food and water security of billions of humans. But ice is at the frontline of the climate crisis. Predictions show that even with the most ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, up to half of the world’s glaciers will disappear by the end of the century. Further warming will contribute to the annihilation of ice. The world faces a dangerous future where the loss of its ice drives rising sea levels, droughts and famines. Furthermore, hundreds of millions of lives in the shadow of mountain lands destabilized by ice loss. Finally, glaciers are also Earth’s largest freshwater ecosystems, harboring a unique biodiversity with tens of thousands of microbial species endangered by glacier loss.

Every molecule of greenhouse gas makes more melting ice, so reducing carbon emissions is critical to help saving glaciers. However, more must be done to help protect ice and its biodiversity, and mitigate the downstream impacts.

This alliance of scientists is committed to tackling the challenges and consequences of glacier loss through three key priorities. First, in collaboration with communities and stakeholders, the program will develop novel technical approaches to slow ice loss at the local scale, and systematically evaluate and test, also in collaboration with local communities and stakeholders. Second, it will advance early-warning systems to better protect communities from glacier-related hazards in some of the world’s most perilous mountain ranges. Finally, the loss of glacier ice means that future generations of scientists will not be able to study the ice-locked microorganisms. The program will establish a unique biobank – a microbial zoo - to safeguard glacier microorganisms for future generations and harness their power for mitigating consequences of climate change.

 

Research institutions involved

EPFL, Switzerland
CRBIP, Institut Pasteur, Paris France
Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), Norway
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
WSL, Switzerland
Universität Innsbruck, Austria
Institute of Tibetan Plateau (ITP) Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Norway
Aarhus University. Denmark
Indian Institute of Technology Indore
Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Austria
University of Leeds, UK
Center for Climate Repair, University of Cambridge
Centre de recherche sur l’environnement alpin (CREALP), Switzerland
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Natural History Museum (NHM), London, UK
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, China
Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland
Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Branch Bioanalystics and Bioprocesses IZI-BB, Potsdam, Germany
Laboratoire Chrono-environnement, CNRS UMR 6249, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, France
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohr, National Institute of Biology, Italy
Masaryk University, Department of Experimental Biology, Czech Republic
University of Cambridge, UK
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India

 

Photo: The small glacier on the summit of Gemsstock, Central Switzerland, covered with reflective geotextiles since 2004 to slow down its melting. This permitted maintaining winter skiing facilities and touristic activities. The photoraph was taken on a hot summer day in August 2023 at sunrise. © Matthias Huss