Nature Climate Change, 28 August 2025 Methane emissions from boreal-Arctic wetlands and lakes will increase by one third by 2100 with even moderate warming, with small and mid-sized peatland lakes the largest contributors. Rising temperatures and resulting permafrost thaw will drive this spike in methane released into the atmosphere, which occurs when thawing occurs under […]

Nature Communications, 22 August 2025 The Kennicott and Root Glaciers, two of Alaska’s most accessible large valley glaciers in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, were mostly stable during the first half of the 20th century, but have been rapidly thinning since then, with Kennicott Glacier losing 1.43 meters per year this past decade compared to the […]

Cryosphere systems are nearing irreversible thresholds, yet political processes remain misaligned with the long timescales of ice loss. Using COP30 as context, this event explained how cryosphere science must inform and strengthen governance capable of linking near-term decisions with long-term stability in a rapidly changing world. Speakers included Dr. Letizia Tedesco, Finnish Environment Institute and […]

Nature Communications, 15 December 2025 Sea-level rise along Africa’s coasts is now occurring four times faster than observed in the 1990s, with ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland now accounting for approximately 80% of the total rise. Highest rates of sea-level rise were observed in the Red Sea and Guinea Current regions. 2023 was particularly […]

Nature Climate Change, 9 January 2026 Warm water draining and flowing beneath ice shelves carves channels into the ice, where intense localized melting occurs, with peak melt rates 42–50% higher than previously estimated. High-resolution satellite elevation data combined with radar measurements from 2010-2017 make it possible to map these channels as they deepen and shift. […]

Nature Geoscience, 9 January 2026 As frozen permafrost thaws and the seasonally thawed layer deepens, summers become hotter and drier, vegetation and burnable soils increase, and wildfires grow larger and more intense across the Arctic and boreal (sub-Arctic) zones. Field observations paired with satellite data from 1997-2018 show that this thaw is a direct driver […]

Nature Reviews Microbiology, 5 November 2025 This review summarizes the harmful impacts of snow and ice loss on microbial communities uniquely adapted to thrive in these cold environments, posing downstream risks to food and income security, water availability, and human health. In the cryosphere, microbes grow in pools or streams of water across glacial, permafrost […]

Education is a vital lever for climate resilience. This side event presented lessons from five years of implementing the Ocean & Cryosphere manual co-developed by the Office for Climate Eduaction (OCE) with the IPCC, which has trained over 30,000 teachers and reached more than four million students. Experts share how science-based, inclusive education has helped […]

Nature Geoscience, 24 November 2025 The Prudhoe Dome ice cap in northern Greenland completely melted 7,000 years ago and was ice-free until a few thousand years ago, indicating that parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet disappeared when global mean temperatures were actually cooler than today (about 0.3°C cooler than the 2011-19 average, according to IPCC […]

Nature Communications, 5 December 2025 Very high emissions will trigger large-scale Antarctic ice sheet retreat over coming centuries, while net-zero emissions well before 2100 would strongly reduce multi-centennial ice loss. This study combines ice sheet models and accounts for multiple sources of uncertainty, grounding them in historical observations to more accurately estimate future sea-level rise […]

Ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s. This has raised concerns about their future stability and focused attention on the temperature thresholds that might trigger more rapid retreat or even collapse, with renewed calls to meet the more ambitious target of the Paris Climate Agreement and limit warming […]

Thank You for 2025! From the launch of the International Year of Glaciers Preservation during January and March in Geneva, Paris, and New York; to Sagarmatha Sambaad in Kathmandu and the International Glaciers’ Conference in Dushanbe during May; through SB62 in Bonn, UNGA Climate Week in New York, and COP30 in Belém; and across dozens […]

Nature Climate Change, 15 December 2025 Glacier loss is projected to rapidly increase this century, peaking between 2040 and 2055, when up to 2,000 glaciers per year could disappear even if warming is limited to 1.5°C. However, up to 4,000 glaciers per year could disappear under 4.0°C warming. This peak rate under high emissions is […]

Nature Communications, 6 November 2025 The amount of sunlight entering the Arctic Ocean will likely increase by 50-77% over coming decades as sea ice cover declines, but a high emissions scenario could push this system even further, past a threshold after 2050 if sea ice levels collapse. With such extreme sea ice loss, increased light […]

Immediately reducing emissions of super pollutants – short-lived climate forcers – is the best option to avoid runaway Arctic warming and remain below 1.5°C. Methane, ozone and black carbon are responsible for a significant proportion of global warming to date, yet black carbon emissions from shipping remain unregulated, and liquified natural gas (methane) is marketed […]