Expert: Warming climate raises high-mountain disaster risks

A recent mudslide that swept through parts of Nepal and southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region has drawn renewed attention to the growing risks of cascading disasters in high mountain regions.

Preliminary investigations suggest the disaster was triggered by a high-altitude ice collapse on the Nepal side of the Himalayas.

The collapsing ice mass evolved into a high-speed flow carrying ice, rocks and sediment before developing into a mudslide downstream.

The disaster should be viewed against a broader trend of accelerating changes in glaciers and frozen environments as the climate continues to warm, said Wang Pengling, deputy director of the Climate Change Monitoring and Projection Division at China's National Climate Center.

As the global climate system warms at an accelerating pace, mountain glaciers around the world are generally melting and retreating, while snow cover is shrinking and permafrost degradation is becoming increasingly evident, Wang said.

Long-term observations by the World Glacier Monitoring Service show that glacier melt has accelerated since the 1990s.

From 2022 to 2025, glaciers continued to experience strong mass loss, with representative glaciers worldwide thinning by more than 1.1 meters on average each year.

According to assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, glacier retreat and permafrost thaw in high mountain regions have reduced slope stability over recent decades, altering the areas affected by, as well as the scale and impacts of, hazards including ice avalanches, landslides, mudslides and mountain floods.

Similar changes are being observed across major mountain systems around the world.

Glacier loss has become increasingly evident in the European Alps, the Andes, the Caucasus and high mountain regions across Asia.

Rising permafrost temperatures in the Alps have also been linked to accelerating rock glacier movement, while glacier retreat in the Andes is affecting agriculture and water supplies.

In February 2021, a glacier collapse in northern India triggered devastating flooding downstream, causing major loss of life and property.

Wang said the risks posed by ice avalanches, snow avalanches, permafrost-related ground instability and glacial lake outburst floods are increasing as climate change continues to reshape high mountain environments.

While the precise causes of individual disasters require further scientific investigation, the broader changes in glaciers, snow and frozen ground are making monitoring and risk assessment increasingly important, Wang said.