Glaciologist Matthias Huss together with members of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland
(Picture: REUTERS)A third of all glaciers in UN World Heritage sites will be lost within three decades, a new climate change report has warned.
Such is the rate of climate change, the last glaciers in the Alps, Mount Kilimanjaro and Yosemite National Park will be unavoidably lost by 2050, the UNESCO report said.
Experts say that despite efforts to limit climate change and rising global temperatures by 1.5C, a large number will still be lost in what experts called “the most dramatic evidence that Earth’s climate is warming".
"We hope we might be wrong, but this is the hard science," said UNESCO project officer Tales Carvalho Resende, one of the authors.
The analysis is based on satellite data and has identified 18,600 glaciers across 50 heritage sites.
At current levels, the analysis shows that ice loss from heritage sites may cause up to 4.5 per cent of global sea rises between 2000 and 2020, and will badly impact local communities and indigenous people who rely on fresh water supplies.
"Glaciers are one of the valuable indicators of climate change, because they’re visible. This is something we can really see happening,” Mr Resende said.
Professor Duncan Quincey, a glaciology expert at the University of Leeds who was not involved in the research added: “If we can manage to drastically cut emissions, we will be able to save most of these glaciers."
"This is really a call to take action at every level - not only at the political level, but at our level as human beings.”
The analysis comes as world leaders prepare to meet for the COP27 summit in Egypt.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reversed an earlier decision not to attend the suummit, adding that there is “no long-term prosperity without action on climate change”.
