Scientists Warn that
Many Low-Lying Ones Vital for Dryland Communities
May Disappear Over Coming Decades
News Comes as Norway Announces Funding
for Himalayan Climate Adaptation Initiative
Cancun/ Nairobi/Oslo, 7 December 2010-Glaciers
in Patagonia, which cover parts of Argentina
and Chile, followed by those in Alaska and
its coastal mountain ranges have overall
been losing mass faster and for longer than
glaciers in other parts of the world.
These are among the findings
of a new report compiled by the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) in partnership with scientists
and research centres from around the world,
including the Norwegian Polar Institute
and Norut Alta.
The third fastest rate
of loss is among glaciers in the northwest
United States and southwest Canada followed
by ones in the high mountains of Asia, including
the Hindu Kush of the Himalayas, the Arctic
and the Andes.
Overall Europe's glaciers
have been putting on mass since the mid-1970s
but this trend was reversed around the year
2000.
While the overall trend
is down, higher levels of precipitation
in some places has increased the mass and
in some cases the size of glaciers, including
in western Norway, New Zealand's South Island
and parts of the Tierra del Fuego in South
America.
Some mountain ranges
are experiencing apparently contradictory
effects. In smaller areas of the Karakoram
range in Asia, for example, advancing glaciers
have even over-ridden areas that have been
ice-free for some 50 years.
Meanwhile, in the Tianshan
and Himalayan mountain ranges, glaciers
are in fact receding - and some rapidly.
"Accumulation of
science shows us a clear general trend of
melting glaciers linked to a warming climate
and perhaps other impacts, such as the deposit
of soot, reducing the reflection of heat
back into space", says UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
"This report underlines a global trend,
observed over many decades now in some parts
of the globe, which has short and long-term
implications for considerable numbers of
people in terms of water supplies and vulnerability".
"Without doubt
the main driving force behind the rapid
melting of Himalayan glaciers and formation
of the catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst
Floods (GLOFs) is warming due to climate
change. The risk to lives and livelihoods
in the fragile Hindu Kush Himalayan region
is high and getting higher. Immediate action
by the global community on launching long-term
adaptation and resilience-building programmes
is urgently needed," said Madhav Karki,
Deputy Director General, International Centre
for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
"These alarming
findings on melting glaciers underline the
importance of combating climate change globally.
It sends a strong message to us as politicians
and climate negotiators in Cancun,"
said Norway's Minister of the Environment
and International Development Erik Solheim.
Mr. Solheim announced
today that Norway will fully fund, with
more than US$12 million, the five- year
Hindu-Kush-Himalayas Climate Impact Aadaptation
and Assessment (HICIA) Programme from 2011.
The initiative will
be carried out by the Centre for International
Climate and Environmental Research, ICIMOD
and UNEP-Grid Arendal.
"People in the
Himalayas must prepare for a tough and unpredictable
future. They need our committed support.
Therefore, Norway will fully fund the brand
new five-year programme. We see this programme
as a potent mix of solid climate science,
promising intra-regional cooperation and
concrete adaptation projects on the ground.
We support the programme with great enthusiasm
and look forward to continued close cooperation
with the programme partners," said
Mr. Solheim.
"ICIMOD is indeed
very pleased to acknowledge the generous
announcement by the Royal Norwegian Government
in taking a major and timely action by announcing
a fresh and substantial support in launching
the HICIA programme," said Dr. Karki.
Key Findings from the
New UNEP Report
Melting glaciers could, in some places and
perhaps in a matter of a few decades, cause
a reduction in water availability in dry
areas, such as in Central Asia and parts
of the Andes, says the report "High
Mountain Glaciers and Climate Change - Challenges
to Human Livelihoods and Adaptation."
In dry regions of Central
Asia, Chile, Argentina and Peru, where there
is little rainfall and precipitation, receding
glaciers will have much more impact on the
seasonal water availability than in Europe
or in parts of Asia, where monsoon rains
play a much more prominent role in the water
cycle.
The report says that
many glaciers may take centuries to fully
disappear but underlines that many low-lying,
smaller glaciers, which are often crucial
water sources in drylands are melting much
faster.
"When glaciers
disappear, people, livestock, birds and
animals will be forced to move," says
Christian Nellemann of the UNEP/GRID-Arendal
research centre in Norway. "But ironically,
a lot of people die in deserts also from
drowning, when increasingly unpredictable
rains cause flash floods."
Most glaciers have been
shrinking since the end of the Little Ice
Age around 150 years ago. However, since
the beginning of the 1980s the rate of ice
loss has increased substantially in many
regions, concurrent with an increase in
global mean air temperatures.
In some regions, it
is very likely that glaciers will largely
disappear by the end of this century, whereas
in others glacier cover will persist but
in a reduced form for many centuries to
come.
As glaciers melt, lakes
held back by walls of mud, soil and stones
can form, holding back sometimes millions
of tonnes of water which can put at risk
villagers and infrastructure, such as power
plants.
In the last 40 years,
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods - also known
as GLOFs - have been increasing, not only
in China, Nepal and Bhutan, but also more
recently in Patagonia and the Andes.
Five major GLOFs took
place in April, October and December 2008
and again in March and September 2009 in
the Northern Patagonia Icefield in Chile.
On each occasion, the Cachet 2 Lake, dammed
by the Colonia Glacier, released around
200 million tonnes of water into the Colonia
River. The lake has since rapidly refilled,
suggesting high risk of further GLOFs.
There has been a near
doubling in the frequency of GLOFs in the
Yarkant region of Karakoram, China, from
0.4 times annually between1959 and 1986
to 0.7 times annually from 1997-2006. This
has been attributed to a warming climate.
In Bhutan on 7 October
1994, the glacial lake Luggye Tsho in the
Lunana region, burst. The ensuing GLOF,
which contained an estimated 18 million
cubic meters of water, debris and trees,
swept downstream killing over 20 people,
and travelled over 204 kilometers.
Adaptation
Boosting adaptation,
including reducing the risk to people, livestock
and infrastructure will be increasingly
important in a climate-constrained world.
In respect to melting
glaciers and the formation of glacial lakes,
siphoning off the water from such lakes
is one adaptive action. This has been successfully
carried out at lakes in the Cordillera Blanca,
Peru.
Similar projects have
been carried out in the Tsho and Thorthormi
Glaciers in Nepal and Bhutan but the cost
and technical challenges in remote locations
can be high.
The Peruvian authorities
have had substantial experience in the remediation
of glacial lakes, having undertaken the
first works in response to the catastrophic
inundation of Huaraz in 1941, which resulted
in over 5,000 fatalities.
Over 5,000 people are
killed in Asia every year by flash floods
and hundreds of thousands of people have
been impacted in the mountain regions.
The challenge of GLOFs
comes against the background of increasing
concern over the impacts of extreme weather
events such as flash floods on lives and
livelihoods. Annually an estimated 100 to
250 million people every year are affected
by flooding.
The report also calls
for more investment in glacial research
and monitoring. Studying and modeling the
runoff from glaciers and rivers and analyzing
future variability linked with climate change
is complex but necessary.
"If the world is
to decisively deal with climate change,
we must also address the need for programmes
targeted towards adaptation strategies to
build long-term resilience. Local people
are already having to make tough decisions
and choices as the climate around them changes.
It is time for and governments and the international
to step up action on cutting emissions and
supporting adaptation. This meeting in Cancun
is the next opportunity to fast track a
response," Mr. Steiner added.
Notes to Editors
The report "High Mountain Glaciers
and Climate Change - Challenges to Human
Livelihoods and Adaptation" can be
accessed at www.unep.org or at www.grida.no/publications/high-mountain-glaciers
including high and low resolution graphics
for free use in publications.
The report is supported by UNEP's Polar
Research Centre GRID-Arendal and experts
from research centres in Asia, Europe, Latin
America and North America.
The report will be released at 09:30 on
7 December 2010 at the 16th Conference of
the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP) in Cancún,
Mexico.
Around the World in 80 'Eco' Days
Cancún (Mexico),
7 December 2010 - After covering more than
25,000 kilometres across four continents,
participants in the Zero Emissions Race
received a warm welcome in Cancún,
Mexico at the UN Climate Change Conference,
having powered their way from Geneva in
less than 80 days using renewable energy.
UN Environment Programme Executive Director
Achim Steiner greeted environmentalist and
adventurer Louis Palmer, the organizer of
the marathon journey, saying this proved
that green technologies to promote and catalyse
low carbon transport, are available and
reliable.
After their pit stop in Cancun, the teams
from Australia, Germany and Switzerland
will take to the road once more, with the
electric vehicles aiming to arrive at the
finishing line in Geneva by 22 January 2011.
"We have been following
the Zero Emissions Race with interest and
excitement since its inception. I am delighted
to see that the same innovation and spirit
which inspired the dreams of adventurers
over 130 years ago, are still very much
evidence as we cross another threshold,
this time towards a resource-efficient Green
Economy frontier,"said Mr Steiner.
The transport sector
is responsible for approximately one quarter
of all energy-related CO2 emissions, a figure
set to rise to one third by 2050. Within
that sector, it is estimated that in 40
years, the number of vehicles in the world
will have tripled, with over 80 per cent
of that growth occurring in developing countries.
Mr. Steiner added: "There
is an urgent need to find a way to reconcile
legitimate aspirations for mobility and
an ambitious reduction in CO2 from cars.
The technology underpinning electric cars,
amongst others, needs to be harnessed, and
markets and industries incentivized to support
production and use of this kind of clean
energy."
"With an unprecedented
growth in the use of vehicles over the next
few decades, governments in both developed
and developing countries need to act to
stem the expected exponential rise in emissions
and find alternative transport methods,"
he said.
Reducing CO2 emissions
from transport not only helps to combat
climate change, but reduces the health hazards
associated with vehicle emissions. The majority
of developing and transitional countries
used leaded gasoline in 2002. However, today
only 6 countries are still using small amounts
of leaded gasoline - the harmful effects
of which are well documented in both children
and adults.
UNEP's Clean Vehicles
Partnership, with its Clearing-House based
in Nairobi has on-going or planned activities
in all the remaining six countries moving
towards complete elimination - Myanmar,
North Korea, Yemen, Algeria, Afghanistan
and Iraq.
UNEP is also working
with road safety, environmental protection
and sustainable mobility campaigners, the
FIA Foundation, the International Energy
Agency and the International Transport Forum,
to form the Global Fuel Economy Initiative
- the first global project to offer developing
countries access to practical technology
and policy expertise to lower greenhouse
gas emissions from road transport.
This case study is showcased
in UNEP's "30 Ways in 30 Days"
initiative - a compilation of success stories
showing that across the world, in myriad
ways, from community-based programmes to
entrepreneurial endeavors, solutions are
available to help confront the challenges
of climate change and to help countries,
communities and businesses move towards
low-emission, climate-resilient growth.
Note to Editors
UNEP's 30 Ways in 30 Days Initiative is
at http://www.unep.org/unite/30ways/
