Key points:
- Earth's glaciers lost ~408 gigatonnes of ice in 2025, contributing ~1.1 mm to global sea-level rise.
- Six of the most severe glacier loss years on record have occurred in the past seven years.
- Since 1975, glaciers have lost ~9,583 gigatonnes of ice, equivalent to ~26.4 mm of sea-level rise.
Earth's glaciers are continuing to shrink at alarming rates, with new international research revealing that 2025 was among the worst years on record for global ice loss.
Published in the Climate Chronicles collection of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, the study provides the latest global assessment of glacier mass change, showing an accelerating trend driven by rising temperatures.
The findings reveal that glaciers worldwide lost an estimated 408 gigatonnes of ice in 2025, marking the sixth most negative year since records began in 1975. The past decade has seen a dramatic acceleration in ice loss, with annual losses nearly four times higher than those observed in the late 20th century.
Monash University Research Fellow, Dr Levan Tielidze, from the Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment and Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), is the only Australian-based co-author of the study. Dr Tielidze said the results underscore the scale and urgency of ongoing glacier decline.
"Glaciers are among the clearest indicators of climate change, and we are now witnessing unprecedented global ice loss," Dr Tielidze said.
"The fact that six of the most extreme loss years have all occurred within the past seven years highlights just how rapidly the system is changing."
"These changes are not only reshaping mountain landscapes, but are also contributing significantly to global sea-level rise and affecting water resources for millions of people."
The study shows that glacier mass loss has accelerated from less than 100 gigatonnes per year in the late 20th century to around 390 gigatonnes per year over the past decade.
In 2025, all 19 major glacier regions across the globe experienced net mass loss for the fourth consecutive year, with the largest regional losses recorded in areas including Western North America and Central Europe.
Over the longer term, glaciers have lost nearly 10,000 gigatonnes of ice since 1975, with almost 80 per cent of that loss occurring since 2000.
Dr Tielidze said the findings highlight both the long-term commitment to glacier loss and the importance of limiting future warming.
"Even if global temperatures stabilise today, a substantial proportion of glacier mass is already committed to melting," he said.
"However, every fraction of a degree matters, reducing warming will directly reduce future glacier loss and its impacts."
The research was conducted by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) network, combining field observations and satellite data from around the world to provide one of the most comprehensive global glacier assessments to date.
The authors warn that continued high rates of ice loss could lead to the disappearance of many glaciers within decades, with cascading impacts on sea level, ecosystems and freshwater availability.
Read the research paper: http://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-026-00777-z
