In Central Asia and other mountainous regions around the world, glaciers are melting faster than ever. Rising temperatures are shortening winters and prolonging summers, which in turn leads glaciers to retreat.

Glaciers store about 70% of Earth’s freshwater, which nearly two billion people depend on for drinking water, agriculture, industry and energy production. Glaciers also support ecosystems and are local ‘climate stabilizers’, protecting against heat absorption by reflecting solar radiation back into space.

As glaciers continue to shrink and even disappear, the water cycle is becoming more unpredictable, affecting water supply across the world. This loss is not just an environmental problem but also an economic one, impacting livelihoods for millions of people. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the depletion of glacier-fed freshwater supplies could jeopardize $4 trillion of global gross domestic product by disrupting agriculture, urban water supplies and energy production.

In Central Asia, the situation is becoming dire. “The consequences of global climate change are felt in each of our countries,” said the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, at the Sixth Central Asian Summit in August 2024. “Rising temperatures, melting glaciers, floods, droughts, dust storms and many other challenges continue to cause serious damage.”

According to a 2022 report by the Eurasian Development Bank, the region’s temperatures are increasing almost twice as fast as the global average, increasing desertification and hastening glacier melt.

“To date, more than 1000 of Tajikistan’s 14 000 glaciers have completely melted,” said the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, at the first High-Level International Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation, held in Dushanbe in May 2025. “Over the past few decades the total volume of glaciers in our country — which make up more than 60% of the water resources in the Central Asian region — has decreased by almost a third.”

Kyrgyzstan’s glaciers have not been spared either: the area covered by glaciers has decreased by 16% over the past 50 to 70 years.

“If this trend continues, a significant part of the glaciers may disappear by the end of the century,” said the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, at the 29th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP29) in 2024. “This is not just statistics, this is a direct threat to the lives and well-being of millions of people, who depend on glaciers as a source of fresh water.”

At the urging of Tajikistan, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2025 the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to raise awareness about melting glaciers and advocate for policies and measures to preserve them. The official launch took place in New York on 21 March 2025, marking the first annual World Day for Glaciers.

A few weeks later, the High-Level International Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation resulted in the adoption of the Dushanbe Glaciers Declaration, which expressed concern that the continuing loss of glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost and snowpack could have irreversible effects on certain ecosystems and detrimental impacts on the environment, societies and economies.

The declaration called for a global inventory of glaciers and other perennial ice and snow masses; integrated approaches to climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience for sustainable water management; scientific cooperation on mountain cryosphere monitoring and research, with the findings made available to all stakeholders; and capacity-building efforts bridging science, policy and traditional knowledge to train the next generation of glacier scientists and practitioners.

This year also marks the start of the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences, a global effort to advance research and international collaboration and raise awareness of the importance of Earth’s frozen regions – the cryosphere – including glaciers.

Glacier preservation is a key component of a comprehensive regional strategy for climate change adaptation in Central Asia that has been jointly developed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“No country can cope with the challenges of climate change alone,” said President Japarov. “We need solidarity, cooperation and exchange of experience.”

As part of this regional strategy, the five countries are enhancing their national capacities for glacier monitoring, working together on joint monitoring and creating a comprehensive inventory of the region’s glaciers.

Data on glaciers are of key importance for scientific evaluations and for decision making on adaptation and mitigation strategies. In 2025, Tajikistan opened the first isotope hydrology laboratory in Central Asia for conducting research on glaciers, with support from the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme. The IAEA provided the laboratory with equipment for studying glaciers in field conditions and trained scientists to use it. Tajikistan has also proposed the establishment of a regional network within the IAEA’s Global Water Analysis Laboratory (GloWAL) Network; the IAEA will work with the Central Asian countries to develop a roadmap for it.

“In the arid lands of Central Asia, isotope hydrology bridges the past and present,” said Yuliya Vystavna, an IAEA isotope hydrologist. “It traces ancient climate imprints and current glacier melt to guide sustainable water use in a region where every drop counts.”

The IAEA has been working with mountainous countries to monitor and measure glacier retreat for over a decade. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are among 12 countries taking part in a new IAEA coordinated research project that uses isotope hydrology tools to improve evaluation of the complex processes related to glacier retreat and its broader impact on the availability of water resources.

Despite their importance in terms of water supply, glacier melt, snowmelt, precipitation and other water sources are not well measured in many frozen regions. The IAEA project will support countries in collecting accurate and reliable data to better understand glaciers and the recharge capabilities of local and regional water resource systems. This will inform sustainable water management strategies for mountainous regions and support improved water resource planning for downstream communities.

Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and seven other countries are studying snow cover and mountain glaciers as part of a new IAEA regional technical cooperation project to support evidence based management of transboundary water resources. A key aim of this work is to preserve the isotopic characteristics of glaciers that are close to disappearing.

Through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, the IAEA is studying the impact of glacier retreat on soil and water resources using advanced nuclear and isotopic techniques. Tools such as cosmic ray neutron sensors and isotopic tracers enable precise, real-time monitoring of snow accumulation on glaciers and assessments of the redistribution of sediments from deglaciated areas to downstream rivers and lakes. Through its technical cooperation programme, the IAEA trains scientists from the Andes to the Himalayas to use these techniques for glacier monitoring, thereby supporting the development of site-specific, evidence based climate change adaptation strategies.

“By combining nuclear science with local expertise, we empower scientists and policymakers to turn data into action for climate resilience,” said Gerd Dercon, Head of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre’s Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Laboratory.