Wishing You a Happy Cryosphere New Year!

To all of our Cryosphere Capsules readers, we wish you a merry holiday season and a joyful 2024! We want to thank everyone for their incredible work this past year. It takes a community to bring about meaningful action, and this year has offered a powerful message of unity and hope, especially when it comes to raising cryosphere issues to the forefront of climate change discussions.

This email marks our final Cryosphere Capsule of 2023. It has been a remarkable year, filled with major accomplishments in cryosphere science and policy. ICCI published more than ninety Capsules this past year, covering diverse topics on polar oceans, ice sheets, glaciers, permafrost, sea ice and more — all with a specific focus on climate change not just in cryosphere regions, but on ecosystems and human communities around the planet.

This year also brought in a stronger connection between crysophere scientists and policy makers on a global scale. June was a particularly busy month. In Finland, the 45th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) hosted its first-ever Climate Day, a full-day session on climate change. Cryosphere scientists shared the latest science around the fate of the Antarctic ice sheet with continued high fossil fuel emissions in a side event featuring statements from low-lying countries who are highly vulnerable to sea level rise.

Also in June, the Ambitioner på smältande is (AMI) high-level group held the first Cryosphere Pre-sessional Technical Workshop in Bonn. Climate negotiators examined five key elements of the cryosphere where the science has evolved most rapidly, and outlined a path forward in UNFCCC adaptation, loss and damage, and mitigation processes. In the midst of negotiations the following week, a gathering of mountain, polar and low-lying nations came together in a UNFCCC side event with a clear message: 2°C of warming is too high.

This language was strengthened in New York during UNGA Climate Week. Charting the course toward COP28, an AMI high-level event with leading global policymakers and scientists labeled “keeping 1.5°C alive” as an exclusive focus, not simply an option. The speakers underscored that 2°C needs to be off the table as a viable temperature goal; the cryosphere’s response would be beyond the limits of adaptation for billions of people alive today, as well as many future generations. The One Planet Polar Summit in France last month helped carry on this ambition into COP28 in Dubai.

As evidenced by the key outcomes from COP28, while references to 1.5°C are fairly strong, much work still needs to be done in connecting it with the irreversible and long-term impacts from Earth’s cryosphere. Thanks to everyone — from researchers in the field, those developing and implementing policies, and communities on the local level — for your inspiring work in bridging these gaps and elevating the latest science.

Our regular Cryosphere Capsules will resume on January 5. If you would like to read any of the Capsules from the past year, please visit the ICCI website, select “Recent Science” and click on Cryosphere Capsules.

Have a wonderful holiday, and we look forward to connecting with you in 2024!

The ICCI Cryosphere Capsules Team