The first High-Level International Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation was held at Dushanbe, the capital of the Republic of Tajikistan, from May 29 to 31, 2025. Besides, there was a field visit conducted on June 1, 2025 after the conference ended. The main agenda of the conference was to talk about the global climatic issue, i.e., retreating of glacier, and the potential solutions for the conservation of glaciers worldwide.
The event was attended by over 2,500 notable people from 80 countries of the world. These attendees were the top bureaucrats of UN agencies and civil society, heads of government of different countries, senior representatives of organisations of both national and international levels, heads of research institutions and financial institutions, international policymakers, scientists, experts, and development partners.
Background
During the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the year 2025 was declared as the International Year of Glacier Preservation by the UN by passing a resolution. Emomali Rahmon, Tajik President, had proposed this initiative, so the conference was held in Tajikistan. Under this UN resolution, the conference was organised as a flagship event in Tajikistan. The conference began with the introduction of a new global initiative titled ‘The Dushanbe Process for Glacier Preservation’.
During the same session of the United Nations, it was also declared that the World Day for Glaciers will be celebrated on March 21st every year, beginning from 2025.
Who Organised the Conference
The conference was organised by the Government of Tajikistan in coordination with the United Nations, particularly WMO and UNESCO, the ADB (Asian Development Bank), and some other major partners. The Government of Tajikistan set up the National Organising Committee led by the prime minister. The committee, along with a Conference Secretariat, had the sole responsibility of organising the conference.
Objectives of the Conference
The conference highlighted the role of glaciers in the overall ecosystem of the world. The conference emphasised that the global agenda is to prevent the glaciers from splitting and shedding ice, from retreating, and from melting away so rapidly.
The conference further aimed at garnering global efforts in dealing with the melting of glaciers across the world and its far-reaching impacts. This will be done by carrying out scientific innovation, collaborative action, and policy alignment. The much-needed resources will be acquired and managed, and international cooperation will be developed to promote glacier preservation. In order to maintain glaciers and reap their socio-economic benefits, collaboration from different countries is required. For this, the conference endeavours to develop strong partnerships among different governments, civil societies, scientists, and other such stakeholders around the world.
This conference will contribute to a series of other global meetings and events, including High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (New York, July 2025), the UNFCCC COP30 (Brazil, November 2025, a key COP with renewal of Paris Agreement NDCs for the next commitment period) along with several introductory meetings to launch the 2026 UN Water Conference conducted by both the UAE and Senegal. These upcoming multilateral events will be intimated under the Dushanbe Glaciers High-Level Declaration, thereby considering the preservation of glaciers as one of the goals of global sustainable development.
Several other important objectives of the conference are given below:
- To build on scientific research and monitoring systems so that changes in glacier patterns can be interpreted properly
- To advocate the use of integrated strategies of adaptation, including disaster risk reduction and early warning systems
- To deal with the socio-economic impact caused by glacier retreat
- To synchronise the goals of glacier preservation with global goals of energy, food security, and water conservation
- To create awareness about the importance of glaciers, obtain resources, and optimally use other frameworks like The Pact for the Future, adopted at the Summit of the Future, on September 22, 2024, and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
Some Key Points
Some of the key points of the conference are as follows:
- Taking additional climatic action to conserve glaciers: Global glaciers can be preserved only by a course-correction at COP30 towards 1.5 °C pathways. It is to be noted that a large number of glaciers, such as those in High Mountain Asia and in Tajikistan, will vanish even at 1.5 °C. However, the current scenario will give way to 2.5 °C, which will destroy glaciers and the associated communities that fulfil their daily water requirement from these glaciers.
- Making advancement in scientific research and monitoring: The conference will encourage the improvement in high mountain cryosphere science through technological innovations, indigenous knowledge, and monitoring systems. This will enable the scientists to learn about the pattern of glacier retreat along with understanding how it would influence water resources, ecosystems, and the climatic system of the world.
- Dealing with socio-economic consequences of retreating glaciers: The conference will analyse the different socio-economic consequences of retreating glacier. These include the impacts of retreating glaciers on food security, availability of water, livelihoods, hydropower, the rise in sea-level, and natural and cultural heritage. Practical solutions to lessen the effect of these impacts and to make the communities relying on glaciers more resilient are needed.
- Making people more aware of glacier conservation and managing resources: The conference aims to raise awareness that how glaciers are vital to maintain ecological balance and socio-economic stability among the masses of people around the world. It will also work on obtaining financial and technical resources to facilitate initiatives to conserve glaciers across the world and to implement effective climatic solutions.
Some Highlights from the Dushanbe Declaration
The leaders reaffirmed commitment to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/1 of September 25, 2015, “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, in which it adopted a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative sustainable development goals and targets that include a dedicated climate action (Goal 13), as well as relevant provisions of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 79/1 of September 22, 2024 “Pact for the Future” in line with national priorities.
They stressed on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, including the outcomes of the first Global Stocktake at the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties that took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12, 2023.
They recalled United Nations General Assembly resolution 77/172 of December 14, 2022 that proclaimed the period 2023–27 as Five Years of Action for the Development of Mountain Regions.
They recognised that glaciers and the broader cryosphere are a critical component of the hydrological cycle and that the current accelerated retreat of glaciers, melting of ice sheets, loss of snowpack, and thawing of permafrost are caused by climate change, with severe negative impacts on the environment, human well-being, health, economies, infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, ecosystems, and sustainable development.
They emphasised that glacier and snow melt significantly affects communities near and far from glaciers, disrupting the availability of freshwater resources that billions of people depend on for drinking water supplies, irrigation, livelihoods, and energy production, etc.
They emphasised that in many high mountain areas, glacier retreat and permafrost thaw from global warming are projected to further decrease the stability of slopes, and that the incidences of floods owing to glacial lake outburst or rain-on-snow events, landslides and snow avalanches are projected to increase. They took note of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–30 and the outcomes from its midterm review in May 2023 that committed to accelerate progress on integrating disaster risk reduction into policies, programmes, and investments at all levels.
They realised the interconnections between glaciers’ preservation and the protection, conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems as well as their linkage with climate action, biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction, and combating desertification, as well as with human development.
They acknowledged the first annual observance of ‘World Glaciers Day’ on March 21, 2025, and took note of the 2025 edition of the United Nations World Water Day Report, Water Towers: Mountains and Glaciers.
They highlighted the importance of advancing related scientific research and continuous monitoring to address the challenges associated with melting glaciers and changes to the cryosphere called for in the United Nations General Assembly resolution 78/321 of August 13, 2024.
They stressed on the importance of initiatives related to the Earth’s cryosphere for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and its sustainable development goals, the Decade of Action on p 2025–34, and the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development” 2018–28.
Forward-Looking Key Messages
The leaders participating in the conference invited and encouraged all decision-makers and stakeholders to take action in order to:
- stress the urgent need to raise awareness of and facilitate actions towards the preservation of glaciers, snowpack, post-glacial ecosystems.
- promote integrated approaches for climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience, to manage water resources sustainably, and mitigate hazards from a rapidly declining cryosphere.
- ensure effective measures for adaptation and to avoid further loss and damage.
- foster cooperation and partnerships between scientific institutions and relevant stakeholders on mountain cryosphere monitoring and research at various levels.
- recognise the financial gap for glacier-related adaptation as a pressing need.
- promote the participation of stakeholders, including women, youth, local communities, and indigenous peoples in glacier-related processes.
Conclusion
Apart from being freshwater reservoirs, glaciers regulate the climate of Earth, which is responsible for the survival of biodiversity and makes the regions resilient. They have cultural, ecological, and geopolitical value, so they should be considered common natural heritage and not merely protected as resources. With improved monitoring systems, incorporating glacial conservation into national laws, and global governance mechanisms, glaciers can be conserved.
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