The COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion will be held in partnership with Iceland, Co-Chair of the Ambition on Melting Ice High-level Group. Building off the success of the past five Cryosphere Pavilions at COP25-29, we will provide a space for exhibits, science-policy seminars (side events), and ministerial-level events with representatives from polar, mountain, coastal nations, and more all affected by the impacts of cryosphere loss.

Urgent ambition is needed as governments finalize their next round of climate pledges at COP30 this fall. This is the first COP to take place in Amazonía – a region, like the cryosphere, threatened by critical thresholds or “tipping points”. 2025 is also the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (with a strong focus on ties to downstream water resources) and the beginning of the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences. In recognition of those initiatives, the Cryosphere Pavilion will focus on the importance of science to inform emissions goals, especially the urgently needed transition from fossil fuels. ICCI will coordinate with concerned nations to strengthen the focus on 1.5°C given expanding loss and damage from cryosphere melt with every increment of temperature rise. 

Apply to Host a Side Event at the COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion

The side event application process is now open! We plan to again carry forward the cryosphere’s message towards urgent ambition with another strong array of policy-relevant side events at COP30. Breadth is strongly encouraged: scientists, Indigenous Peoples, Youth and all those who participate in Cryosphere Pavilion side events help raise the global and regional benefits of avoided cryosphere loss with 1.5°C-consistent NDCs.

There will be six to seven one-hour side events each day. These events will have both in-person and virtual components, depending on speaker needs. Specific Focus Days will include the following topics: feasible pathways to 1.5°C emissions reductions; mountain glaciers and snow; ice sheets; polar oceans; permafrost thaw; sea ice; financing for mountain and coastal regions; thresholds and tipping points; and connections between Amazonía and cryosphere. More information is below.

Apply to Host a Side Event

Apply for the Early Career Scientist Program

The COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion will host six to eight early career scientists at the doctoral and post-doctoral level to staff the Pavilion, three to four each week. They will introduce speakers, answer questions about the exhibits to make the science more accessible, and gain an inside view of negotiations to further inform their scientific careers by shadowing and supporting ICCI and other negotiators.

Apply for the Early Career Scientist program

Pavilion Background & Goals

Click on the tabs below to learn more about the Cryosphere Pavilion background and goals, efforts to raise cryosphere science within the negotiations, and high-level engagement and accomplishments since its formation six years ago at COP25.

New cryosphere and climate science research – some of it published even since release of the IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report in March 2023, and even more since literature inclusion closed for the “Physical Science” portion of AR6 in January 2021 – makes clear that even limited overshoot of the Paris Agreement temperature limit of 1.5°C will cause a number of irreversible global changes, due to the physical cryosphere response. Some of these ice losses will be near-immediate in response to global warming, such as Arctic sea ice (the first instance of an ice-free Arctic Ocean could occur as early as the 2030s, according to research published in June 2023). For others, especially ice sheets, glaciers, and permafrost, cutting edge research increasingly points to losses earlier and at greater scale than previously thought; with spreading and catastrophic global impacts if emissions continue on their high-end trajectory.

On the other hand, very low emissions with only a brief 1.6°C overshoot of the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal would allow at least some stabilization of these delicate cryosphere dynamics by the end of this century, with today’s steep glacial losses evening out and even Greenland and Antarctic loss beginning to slow. This can only occur under very low emissions pathways, requiring 42% emissions cuts no later than 2030, a level which keeps 1.5°C “alive” by enabling net zero emissions by 2050. Low emissions (with overshoot to 1.8°C, but returning nearly below 1.5°C by end of century) are not as effective in slowing the collapse of several cryosphere thresholds, including permafrost thaw and glacier loss, as well as the eventual collapse of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet.

All other pathways above low/very low emissions show a threshold response by global cryosphere: sea ice-free conditions in the Arctic stretching from July to October most years; unstoppable loss of virtually all glaciers in the Alps, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Andes and sub-Arctic North America and two-thirds of Himalayan glaciers, along with their water resources that support agriculture, hydropower and drinking water for an estimated 3 billion people at least seasonally; higher permafrost emissions that cut the human carbon budget and result in severe infrastructure loss across North America, Russia, and High Mountain Asia. In addition to these severely changed landscapes, these higher emissions may change our coastlines through sea-level rise, with rates of 5 cm per year and 15 meters already by 2300 “not able to be ruled out,” according to the IPCC AR6 (and strengthened by additional research conducted since).

In recognition of the need to raise these cryosphere realities at higher government levels, given their human and ecosystem impacts well beyond adaptation limits, 20 nations came together at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh to sign the Ambition on Melting Ice (AMI) Declaration. The AMI high-level group aims to raise the need for urgent emissions cuts that will “correct course” on our current high emissions pathway to align with 1.5°C in order to prevent the devastating loss and damage that will occur in the wake of a collapsing cryosphere.

The Cryosphere Pavilion has been a consistent and effective means at COPs to bring policy-relevant cryosphere science to the attention of delegates, from heads of state and government to negotiators, civil society, and students. The Pavilion helped successfully launch the Ambition on Melting Ice (AMI) High-level Group, Co-Chaired by Iceland and Chile, at COP27 when several countries joined based on visiting the Pavilion exhibit and events.

More than 60 side events have taken place each year, all livestreamed and archived online, with some gaining thousands of views. Especially at COP28 and COP29, senior cryosphere scientists had the chance to interface directly with negotiators, leaders, and the media, and helped hold the line on the lower 1.5°C Paris limit. The Early Career Scientist (ECS) program has grown to involve more than 120 applicants last year, giving the next generation of cryosphere scientists direct experience of climate negotiations and how their current and future research can have a real impact.

AMI was formed to bring knowledge of these stark cryosphere realities to the highest levels of governments and other stakeholders. The COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion will therefore have a clear focus in conjunction with AMI nations and leaders: keeping 1.5°C alive as a matter of basic survival for billions not only today but generations of tomorrow. 

COP30 represents a key opportunity to make the global impact of overshoot from cryosphere resulting from continued fossil fuel use abundantly clear, especially in the world’s first commercial producer of fossil fuels. As of COP28, the global community formally recognized that a new energy era is necessary: a transition away from fossil fuels. COP29 and COP30 will be about bringing all forces – especially financing – in support of the transition presaged by that COP28 outcome.

The Cryosphere Pavilion has directly engaged with a wide range of high-level figures since its inception. The first Cryosphere Pavilion, held at COP25, was opened by His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, and the Chilean Minister for Education. Since that first high-level opening, dozens of heads of state and ministers, ranging from Iceland and Chile to Senegal and Vanuatu, have visited or spoken at the Pavilion and engaged with cryosphere scientists. During his visit at COP28, US Senator Edmund Markey (Massachusetts) noted that he had stopped by every year, calling it his “favorite Pavilion;” US Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) has also been spotted in the audience attending Pavilion side events.

With the founding of AMI near the conclusion of COP27, the Cryosphere Pavilion became a strong focal point in sharing the latest science with negotiators up through the ministerial level of AMI’s 20 founding governments, ranging from polar to low-lying and high-mountain regions all vulnerable to the impacts of cryosphere loss. AMI added France, Italy and the Netherlands in 2023; and Palau and Germany joined in 2024. Cutting across negotiating groups and regions, AMI represents a rare point of consensus on needed ambition and urgency, all motivated by the irreversible damage that results from the simple physical reality of the melting point of global ice stores.

Today, the Cryosphere Pavilion has become a well-recognized space within the Blue Zone at COPs, and an increasing number of delegations visit to speak with experts, from snow and ice scientists to Indigenous representatives, to inform their work during the negotiations. COP28 and COP29 provided a strong example of how the Pavilion forges strong connections between cryosphere scientists and negotiation teams committed to understanding the far-reaching impacts of cryosphere loss, not only in their own countries but across the planet. We plan to strengthen this constructive engagement at COP30 in Belém.

Pavilion Focus Days

The COP30 Cryosphere Pavilion featured specific focus days on the following topics, with targeted side events (six one-hour slots per day) illustrating for policy makers the choice between ambitious 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) versus our current pathway.

Financing for Mountain and Coastal Regions: Adaptation, or Loss & Damage?

Mountain areas are key for climate adaptation efforts due to their transboundary and global importance, serving as water towers and global biodiversity hotspots. Coastal areas have a similarly high vulnerability to climate change as well. Critical steps forward include leveraging finance, such as finding synergies between mitigation and adaptation projects, from the local to national and regional level.

Thresholds and Tipping Points

Tipping points are critical thresholds where small climate changes can trigger significant and potentially irreversible instabilities in cryosphere regions, leading to accelerated ice melt and cascading global impacts. 

Sea Ice: Stabilizing Climate or Accelerating Warming if Loss Expands

Antarctic sea ice hit a record low this year, with potential feedbacks to ice sheet loss and global ocean currents. In the Arctic Ocean, ice-free summers will still occur within 1.5ºC; but by 1.7°C, they could become an annual phenomenon. By 2°C, ice-free periods stretching from July to October could occur most years, with feedbacks increasing permafrost thaw and Greenland ice loss, and harming Arctic food chains and communities.

Hope for the Cryosphere: Feasible Pathways to 1.5°C Emissions Reductions

Emissions reductions consistent with 1.5°C can prevent some of the worst global impacts from cryosphere loss, with a narrowing window for action. Ambitious 2025 NDCs are critical to ensuring these pathways remain feasible. 

Ice Sheets: Choosing Between 3-20+ Meters Irreversible Sea-level Rise

West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse will lead to 4-6m of sea-level rise over time and may have already passed that threshold into irreversible loss, but chances of slowing or preventing its collapse are far better without overshoot of 1.5ºC. In Earth’s past, even 2°C has resulted in 12-20 meters of sea-level rise over time.

Mountain Glaciers and Snow: Healthy Ecosystems or Water Resource Loss

Mid-latitude glaciers suffer near total loss above 2ºC, but preserve some basis for regrowth and stabilization of water and other ecosystem services at 1.5ºC. However, mountain-dependent regions, in particular the Hindu Kush Himalaya, already face challenges today.

Connections Between Amazonía and Cryosphere

The Amazon rainforest, a vital part of the Earth’s biosphere, and the cryosphere are interconnected through multiple climatic and environmental processes. These connections extend from deforestation, biomass burning, and black carbon production to Andean glacier melt and downstream river flow.

Polar Oceans: Stabilized CO2 or Millennia of Acidification

Warming, acidification and freshening in polar oceans and high latitude seas already impacts fisheries and shelled organisms today, because these colder waters absorb CO2 more quickly. Overshoot above 450ppm, which will be breached around 2030 if current annual CO2 growth of 2-3ppm continues, will lead to even larger impacts. These factors increase the invasion of low latitude species and add stress towards (in worst-case emissions) a mass extinction event.

Permafrost Thaw: More Carbon Emissions for Centuries with Overshoot

Carbon emissions released from thawing permafrost increasingly contributes to global warming. Permafrost emissions are already on the order of Japan’s, but overshoot to 3-4°C will introduce a permafrost contribution closer to that of China or the U.S. today. These microbial processes cannot be halted; they continue emitting for centuries after initial thaw.

Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada, throat-singing with an Indigenous youth representative during an evening cultural event at the COP26 Pavilion.

UPCOMING: 2025 State of the Cryosphere Report

Every year, the Cryosphere Pavilion shares the latest snow and ice science through scientific displays. The displays show how key cryosphere dynamics (mountain glaciers and snow, ice sheets, polar oceans, permafrost, and sea ice) will produce increasingly devastating global and regional consequences at different peak CO2 concentrations and temperatures. Impacts hit vulnerable communities – whether Arctic, mountain, or downstream – already at today’s temperatures.

The displays will be based off the 2025 State of the Cryosphere Report this November, the fifth in the series leading up to 2030, which underscores the need for urgent emissions reductions to limit the far-reaching and intergenerational consequences of cryosphere loss. The 2025 report will be released during the opening of COP30. Please reach out to Outreach Director Amy Imdieke (amy@iccinet.org) to be added to our media contacts list. 

2024 State of the Cryosphere Report Media Updates stay in touch – Weekly Cryosphere Capsules

Cryosphere Pavilion Supporters Include, with Great Thanks

Switzerland, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Woodwell Climate Research Center, Lemelson Foundation, Bolin Centre for Climate Research/Stockholm University, British Antarctica Survey, AMAP, Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), GiveOne Foundation, Global Choices, Climate and Cryosphere (CLiC).

In addition, nearly 100 academic institutions participated in past Pavilions with speakers and in-kind support, including: Grantham Institute at Imperial College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Climate Analytics (Germany), INACH (Chile), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK), Antarctic Research Centre, University of Wellington (New Zealand), National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC, U.S.), St. Andrews University (Scotland), Bristol University Glaciology Centre, East China Normal University, Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), University of Oslo, Woodwell Climate Research Center, Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), Arctic Council (AMAP, ACAP Working Groups); and of course, many scientists of the IPCC.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please reach out to:

Pam Pearson

Executive Director

International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (U.S)

International Cryosphere Climate Initiative-Europe (Sweden)

pam@iccinet.org

Amy Imdieke

ICCI Global Outreach Director

Pavilion Logistics and ECS Coordinator

amy@iccinet.org