Parallel Session 1: Urgency of 1.5-degree ambition for the preservation of glaciers

Climate Change is an existential crisis. Its impacts are increasingly intensifying, bringing devastating consequences to ecosystems, farming, and food systems across the globe. The Paris Agreement (2015) aims to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5°C to avoid these impacts. Achieving this goal is particularly critical for glacier-dependent regions, and requires reducing global emissions by at least 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 (AR6, 2023) and reaching net-zero emissions in the latter half of the century.

The WMO recently confirmed that 2024 was the warmest year on record, with unprecedented monthly temperature spikes pushing the global average above the 1.5°C threshold for the first time in a single year. The latest science (WMO and IPCC) reaffirms that limiting warming to 1.5°C still remains possible – but requires immediate, collective and ambitious action.

2025 is a critical year for raising ambition through new and updated NDCs aligned to 1.5°C, reflecting each country’s highest possible ambition as indicated in the outcome of the first Global Stocktake (2023). The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in the Changing Climate (2019) highlights that even at 1°C of warming, high mountain regions are already experiencing significant climate-induced changes. Surpassing this threshold will intensify environmental, economic, and social challenges, unequally affecting nations with glacier-fed river systems. The Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region is also projected to warm by 2.1°C-a change that would lead to the loss of one-third of its ice by 2100.

The high mountainous region of Nepal, including Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest-8848.86), is already grappling with disproportionate climate impacts, posing several downstream consequences. There is an urgent need to act to prevent these unprecedented and unpredictable threats from further escalating.

The urgency of the situation was recognized during the first GST of the Paris Agreement, where countries reaffirmed the need to limit warming to 1.5°C. The GST underscored the importance of taking immediate action in mitigation and adaptation. Further, to minimize, avert, and address loss and damage through climate finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building in mountainous regions.

Objectives:

  1. Highlight the urgency for actions to maintain the 1.5°C target to prevent catastrophic glacier loss and its cascading impacts.
  2. Enhance the resilience and adaptation capacity of mountain regions, with a special focus on water, energy, ecosystems and food.
  3. Strengthen global and regional cooperation for mobilizing climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building activities.

Moderator

Mr. Manjeet Dhakal

Head of LDC Support Team, Climate Analytics

Manjeet is the Head of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Support Team and Director of the Climate Analytics South Asia office. He also serves as Lead Advisor to the Chair of the LDC Group in the multilateral climate change negotiation process, providing high-level strategic support to LDC officials and ministers across UN climate forums. In this role, he has worked with a range of countries—including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Senegal, and currently, Malawi. He played a key role in shaping the LDC Group’s contributions to the Paris Agreement in 2015 and served as thematic coordinator for the Global Stocktake process until COP29 in Baku. Manjeet is affiliated with the School of Environmental Science and Management at Pokhara University as an Adjunct Faculty member. He has also served as a climate change advisor to the Honourable Minister of Forests and Environment in Nepal. Currently pursuing his PhD, Manjeet remains actively engaged in writing, teaching, and presenting on climate change and environmental governance.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Baiqing Xu

Professor, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

Dr. Baiqing Xu is a Professor at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has skills and expertise in Stable Isotope Analysis, Climate Reconstruction, Environment, Climate Change, and Biogeochemistry.

Panelists

Dr. Aparna Shukla

Scientist E, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), India

Aparna Shukla is a Scientist at MoES and has been actively involved in remote sensing as well as field-based cryospheric research since 2005. Her research specialisations are remote sensing, digital image processing and information extraction techniques for glaciology. Her research interests include developing robust methodologies for mapping of debris-covered glaciers, characterisation of supraglacial debris, glacier dynamics and remote sensing based geological mapping. As an outcome of her research, she has published more than forty quality research papers in international journals. She is a reviewer for many ace international journals in the field of glaciology, geoinformatics and geomorphology. After the Nepal Earthquake in April 2015, she worked as an integral part of an ‘International Volunteer Group’ of analysts from nine nations. This team undertook one of the broadest and fastest international emergency remote sensing and data analysis campaigns ever led by NASA for any earthquake-affected region. In recognition of her work, she was chosen for the ‘Women Scientist of the Year – 2018’ by USERC, Dehradun, India and also elected as TWAS Young Affiliate-2018 for a term of five years.

Dr. David Potter

Strategic Group Lead, Regional Action and Global Advocacy, ICIMOD, Nepal

Dr. David Potter has been leading ICIMOD’s Strategic Group 3, Regional Action and Global Advocacy, since July 2024. David joined ICIMOD from UK central government, where he spent 17 years in a range of technical and leadership roles. Most recently, he was Head of the Climate and Environment Profession at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), where he led that department’s 120 climate and environment experts and provided strategic advice to its senior team.

More info at https://www.icimod.org/team/david-potter/

Dr. Anil Mishra

Chief of Section, Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation Section, UNESCO, France

As Chief of Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation of UNESCO, Dr Anil Mishra provides science policy advice underpinned by scientific research findings to deal with climate and water related challenges to UNESCO Member States. Dr. Anil Mishra’s academic, professional, and managerial experiences in the field of hydrology, water resources and environment have spanned over 26 years and included a number of international research studies, initiating and leading thematic groups, coordinating center of excellencies, and supporting decision and policy making in the fields of hydrology, cryosphere, water resources and coupled human-environment systems across the globe. Dr. Mishra has authored, co-authored numerous scientific publications, edited books, scientific reports, and policy briefs, and convened and co-convened conferences focusing on Climate Change Adaptation, Hydrological Extremes, Cryosphere, and Water Resources Management.

Ms. Pam Pearson

Director, International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), Sweden

Pam Pearson is a former U.S. diplomat with 20 years of experience working on global issues, including climate change, non-proliferation, and various initiatives on the environmental and social policies of the multilateral development banks. She served in postings to Ecuador, Sweden, Norway, and several of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, designing some of the very first environmental health programs there. She was part of the Kyoto Protocol negotiating team. From 1999-2003 Pam was a counselor and acting deputy ambassador to Norway and served as the United States focal point to the Global Fund on AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis from 2003-2005. She resigned in 2006 in protest over changes to U.S. development policies, especially related to environmental and global issues.