Melting point: 40% of glaciers are 'doomed' and toll could hit 75% as temperatures rise

Almost 40% of the world's glaciers are doomed to melt because of climate-heating emissions from fossil fuels, a study has found.

- Damian Carrington

The loss will soar to 75% if global temperatures stay on their current track and rise by 2.7C above preindustrial levels. Researchers said the resulting higher sea levels would endanger millions of lives, drive mass migration and affect populations reliant on glaciers to regulate water used to grow food.

However, cutting carbon emissions and limiting heating to the internationally agreed 1.5C target would save half of existing glacier ice.

That goal is looking out of reach as emissions continue to rise. But the scientists said each tenth-of-a-degree increase that was avoided would save 2.7tn tonnes of ice.

Glaciers in the western US and Canada will be severely affected, the study finds, with 75% already doomed to melt. Those in the high, cold mountains of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges in Asia are more resilient but will still shrink significantly as temperatures rise.

The research uses multiple models of glaciers to examine their fate well beyond the end of the century. About 20% were already known to be doomed to melt by 2100 but a longer-term view put the total inevitable loss at 39%.

As well as raising sea levels, glacier loss will cause the collapse of ice lakes, devastating downstream communities and ecosystems.