WMO Report Finds 2025 Marks Fourth Straight Year of Net Glacier Ice Loss Worldwide

Key facts

• The World Meteorological Organisation's (WMO) State of Global Water Resources 2025 report states that 2025 was the fourth consecutive year in which every major glaciated region recorded a net loss in ice mass.
• Between October 2024 and September 2025, glaciers worldwide lost 408 ± 132 gigatonnes of mass, equivalent to a sea level rise of 1.1 ± 0.4 mm.
• Mountain glaciers lost 6.2 per cent of their ice mass between 2000 and 2025, and six of the seven largest annual glacier losses have occurred in the last seven years.
• In 2025, Central Asia, South Asia West, Russian Arctic, Iceland, and Western Canada and USA regions recorded annual mass balances among the three most negative years on record for those regions.
• Glaciers in the central Altai region of Russia have lost 271.7 square kilometres or 40.2 per cent of mass since the 1950s, including 18.8 per cent (93.8 square kilometres) since 2001, with the strongest losses in the South Chuya range.
• Regions with smaller glaciers such as the Caucasus, western Canada and United States, and central Europe may have already reached peak water conditions, where glacier runoff from melting is at its maximum.