Stakeholders and rightsholders from polar, mountainous and vulnerable low-lying regions highlighted the impacts of a melting cryosphere at the UN's climate conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
On 12 November, the Norwegian Chairship of the Arctic Council co-hosted an event at COP29 titled, “A Message From the Frozen World – the Global Impact of a Changing Cryosphere,” with contributors including Pakistan, Germany, Chile, Nepal, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the World Meteorological Organization, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
If you missed the livestream or are curious to learn the contributors’ message from a frozen world, we summarized the event below.
‘We have a common cause, and we will set the agenda and drive the change’
This is what the Prime Minster of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, said to set the mood at the beginning of the event. The Prime Minister helped open the session in a video message noting how changes to the cryosphere will impact everyone. He then stressed the importance of addressing cryosphere changes through knowledge generation and global action to reduce emissions.