The world will soon be losing 3000 glaciers every year
Under current climate policies, 79 per cent of the world’s glaciers will disappear by 2100, endangering the water supply for 2 billion people and raising sea levels dramatically
Environment
Under current climate policies, 79 per cent of the world’s glaciers will disappear by 2100, endangering the water supply for 2 billion people and raising sea levels dramatically
By Alec Luhn
15 December 2025
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Meltwater runs through a glacier cave at the front of Morteratsch glacier in Switzerland
Lander Van Tricht
About 1000 glaciers are now being lost every year and this rate could climb to 3000 per year as soon as 2040, even if countries meet their targets to cut carbon emissions.
At least 4000 glaciers have melted away in the past two decades. Lander Van Tricht at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues used climate models to predict what will happen to the world’s 211,000 glaciers in the coming century under different global warming scenarios.
Current climate goals put the world on track for 2.7°C of warming above pre-industrial temperatures this century. This would mean 79 per cent of the world’s glaciers will disappear by 2100. If humanity limits global warming to 2°C, however, 63 per cent of glaciers will disappear.
“We’re going to lose many of our glaciers, but we have the ability to preserve a lot of them as well,” says at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who worked on the study.