World Day for Glaciers – A Call to Action | United Nations

On March 21, we mark the World Day for Glaciers, raising awareness of these massive frozen rivers that hold 70% of the world’s freshwater and serve as crucial indicators of climate change. As part of the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation (2025), global leaders, scientists, and policymakers will gather at the United Nations in New York to highlight their importance and strengthen glacier monitoring worldwide. 🚨 Why does this matter? “With rising temperatures, glaciers are melting at an unprecedented speed,” warns Sulagna Mishra, Scientific Officer at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) estimates that since 1975, glaciers—excluding the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets—have lost over 9,000 billion tonnes of ice. “To put that into context, 273 billion tonnes of ice lost every year corresponds to the entire world’s water intake for 30 years,” explains Michael Zemp, Director of WGMS.


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