WGMS contribution to the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025 – experiences and first conclusions

Changing glaciers are definite indicators, warning lights, contemporary witnesses and memorials of climate change, as they are accessible beauties and related impacts on the environment, economies, and societies are relatively easy to understand. While these immediate impacts are mainly relevant on local and regional scales, related measures to preserve them need to be taken on the global scale. Therefore, the United Nations have declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (IYGP; https://www.un-glaciers.org) to raise global awareness of glaciers' importance and to ensure that those relying on them or affected by their vanishing have access to the necessary data and information services.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) – together with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) – helped to coordinate the implementation of the international glacier year, the World Day of Glaciers (from 2025 on the 21^st of March) and the United Nations Decade of Action for Cryospheric Research 2025−2034. The contributions have focused on the communication of the scientific basis by explaining the basic processes of glacier dynamics, giving insights into in-situ and remote-sensing techniques to quantify glacier changes and by presenting the latest numbers of glacier mass changes. The WGMS has been actively supported by its network of National Correspondents and Principle Investigators, who highlighted individual or regional glacier changes in workshops, exhibitions, and innovative outreach projects.

Based on the experiences gained so far from national and international outreach events, we want to carefully assess the effect and benefits of these science-based activities on the international glacier monitoring and beyond. This analysis should help to prepare upcoming activities during United Nations Decade of Action for Cryospheric Research 2025−2034 as well as negotiations with decision makers at various levels.