Without immediate emissions reductions, dramatic losses of mountain glaciers around the world will be locked in.

We know that the HKH cryosphere, water, ecosystems, and societies are deeply interlinked. We also know that the impact of climate change on glaciers, snow, and water resources is clear and supported by robust science. The need to draw global attention to these impacts, especially on mountain societies and ecosystems, is pressing.

With the climate crisis already devastating communities across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, and waters held in these mountains critical for the food and water security of two billion people in Asia, ICIMOD has launched a global advocacy campaign to build the public and political will for faster action and greater climate ambition.

The Centre launched the campaign #SaveOurSnow on 29 May 2023, during celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest.

At Namche Bazar, Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, a glaciologist at ICIMOD, stood with his grandfather, Kanchha Sherpa, the last survivor of the first ascent, and urged action to save Earth’s frozen zones.

Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, the descendants of Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, joined thousands to sign the #SaveOurSnow declaration. Influential athletes including Kilian Jornet, Reinhold Messner, Rebecca Stephens and Kenton Cool backed the campaign, and over 300 global media organisations, including The Times, Sky News and the BBC, covered the campaign.

#SaveOurSnow brings together three key communities that are closest to Earth’s cryosphere, and most deeply impacted by the loss of its snow and ice – mountain communities, athletes, and scientists – to forge an unusual lobbying bloc too powerful to ignore.

ICIMOD is inviting everyone, everywhere, to back the campaign #SaveOurSnow.

Bhutanese climate advocate Jamyang Jamtscho Wangchuk cycles from Bhutan, the world’s first carbon negative country, to the UNCOP28 in the United Arab Emirates, one of the largest oil producers in the world, carrying a bottle of meltwater from glaciers here.