What is the Cryosphere?

The cryosphere refers to the regions of our planet that are frozen or covered in ice and snow, either seasonally or year-round. Climate change is happening in the cryosphere faster and more dramatically than anywhere else on Earth. Yet the consequences of a melting cryosphere extend far beyond these frozen regions, affecting communities and ecosystems worldwide, and in most cases are not reversible for thousands of years.

Why Does Cryosphere Matter?

Loss of polar ice sheets, mountain glaciers, sea ice, permafrost, and snow affects the entire planet. It raises sea levels, diminishes essential freshwater resources from snow and glaciers with creeping desertification, disrupts weather and ocean currents, and amplifies warming through permafrost thaw and sea ice decline. Lose the cryosphere – and we lose the planet as we have known it.

ICCI strives to work innovatively, yet in a sustained manner to create new partnerships between cryosphere scientists, governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector – always bringing the urgency of climate action through the cryosphere lens. ICCI’s staff and volunteers span the globe with our unique combination of former diplomats, senior and early career scientists, and sectoral solutions experts.

In practice, this means ICCI works along two main fronts: first, across a range of policy forums to bring the reality of cryosphere dynamics – especially their global impact, irreversibly and high sensitivity to carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and temperatures well below 2°C – into climate negotiations and decision making. This “Cryosphere Reality” means a sharp focus on emissions reductions to limit further losses, including rapid transition from fossil fuels in line with latest IPCC assessments.

In the UNFCCC context, ICCI serves as the Secretariat to the 25-nation Ambition on Melting Ice (AMI) High-level Group; and also works within bodies such as the Arctic Council, Antarctic Treaty Mechanism and various other UN agencies (UNEP, UNESCO, WMO chief among them). ICCI also contributes knowledge and experience on designing realistic assessments of future adaptation needs, which may move beyond adaptation limits into loss and damage without sufficient and in-time emissions reductions.

Second, ICCI conducts on-the-ground programs with special potential to slow cryosphere loss through reducing black carbon emissions, especially near Arctic and mountain communities. Over the past 15 years, ICCI has become the recognized global expert in reducing black carbon emissions from two important sources: agricultural fire use (by introducing tailored methods that eliminate the need to use fire, improving crop yields, carbon drawdown and decreasing wildfire spread), and domestic heating (wood and coal heating stoves, as well as “combined” stoves used for both heating and cooking). This development-focused work, which carries strong benefits to human health and ecosystems, keeps us in touch with the lived reality of those on the front lines of cryosphere loss.

We believe that much can be accomplished if partners work together across perceived boundaries, whether geographic, organizational, or political. ICCI support governments, NGOs, multi-lateral organizations including development banks, and the private sector with its expertise; and stands always ready to form new partnerships for the protection of the cryosphere – and thus the entire planet.