International Cryosphere Climate Initiative

State of the Cryosphere Report Cryosphere Pavilion at COP29: At COP29 ICCI coordinated the fifth Cryosphere Pavilion this year in collaboration with AMI Co-Chairs Chile and Iceland. The Pavilion hosted a robust series of 80+ side events over the course of two weeks supported eight early career scientist volunteers and a cadre of senior cryosphere scientists many IPCC who engaged with governments media and civil society throughout the COP. The Pavilion exhibit was viewed by at least 45,000 COP delegates and hosted the release of the 2024 State of the Cryosphere Report which has become a benchmark for cryosphere science and policy. As one indication of the respect now garnered by the Report ICCIs Director participates in regular private briefing sessions with the UN Secretary-General alongside IPCC leaders and the report gained substantive public attention and policy engagement. ICCI and or AMI were referenced in roughly 150 news publications from Baku including print TV and radio. Livestreamed recordings of side events reached thousands during the two-week period.

Polar Programs Arctic and Antarctica: ICCI continued its engagement in the Arctic Council Antarctic Treaty and related polar forums. It led a science communications workshop during the spring Polar Symposium in Monaco supported the two-week Antarctic Treaty meetings focusing on climate and sea-level rise impacts as part of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition delegation ASOC and participated in the SCAR Open Science Conference in Chile. ICCI gave a series of presentations on the immediacy of sea-level rise threats to over fifty representatives of low-lying and small island developing at the Bonn UNFCCC inter-sessionals and supported the interdisciplinary PROVIDE project with Climate Analytics which has generated online public dashboards mapping global warming impacts such as sea-level rise and glacier loss. ICCI also continued an ongoing partnership with the Arctic Abisko Field Station in Sweden to further public education there.

Fire-free Agriculture Development Assistance: Fire-free agricultural practices reduce wildfire risk ensure healthier soils and better crop yields as well as bringing health and water supply benefits. ICCI has long supported farmers to make this transition also to prevent deposition of black carbon on nearby glaciers and snow which speeds melting and water resource loss. This three-year community demonstration project in Ecuador providing farmers with small-scale equipment seeds and above all technical support and training proved so successful that the USDA and USAID approved an expansion for 2025 including a component aimed at Green Climate Fund extended support. ICCI also held a nationwide Fire-free Agriculture workshop for the technical team of Ecuadors Ministry of Agriculture in December that was also livestreamed showcasing the projects overall achievements and drawing over 230 participants from nine countries and thirty organizations.

Cryosphere Educational Outreach and Communications: ICCI expanded its communications efforts through new educational materials increasingly frequent press releases and media interviews throughout the year. These included cross-platform social media posts on X BlueSky and LinkedIn; and a growing series of YouTube videos explaining the importance of Earths snow and ice regions for public health ecosystems and global economies. The 2024 State of the Cryosphere Report received strong engagement from international news outlets following its launch at COP29 in Azerbaijan. ICCIs commentaries on the loss of Venezuelas last glacier and vulnerability of Saudi oil tanker ports to sea-level rise from glaciers and ice sheets gained quick traction reaching BBC The Guardian Scientific American The Washington Post and many national-scale media outlets globally.

International Year of Glaciers Preservation IYGP Mountains: ICCI led the Policy and Finance Task Force under WMO and UNESCO planning for the 2025 International Year of Glaciers Preservation engaging with high-level policy makers,; and served as Deputy of the Communications Task Force communicating the urgency of mitigation and challenges posed by increased glacier melt. ICCI participated in a multi-day Houston sea-level rise conference spoke at the ministerial-level Nepal Mountain Dialogue and engaged in cryosphere-focused sessions at the annual ADB meetings in Georgia where ICCIs Director participated in an hour-long televised CNBC panel exploring glacier melt as well as led a session of the UNFCCC Mountain Dialogue on adaptation at the Bonn Intersessionals. ICCI also organized an educational field excursion tracking meltwater flow from the Caucuses during AMI meetings in Baku Azerbaijan.