INTERNATIONAL CRYOSPHERE CLIMATE INITIATIVE

AMI UNFCCC: ICCI serves as the Secretariat to the Ambition on Melting Ice AMI High-level Group focused on preventing the worsening of downstream and coastal impacts from cryosphere ice loss in polar and mountain regions through urgent ambitious emission reductions. Joined by Germany and Palau at COP29 in Baku AMI now consists of 25 governments and works also with Indigenous groups though the UNFCCC Indigenous Peoples Platform. As AMI Secretariat ICCI organizes biannual meetings of climate negotiators for 2024 in May Baku and October Frankfurt and supported AMI governments at the Bonn intersessional meetings; as well at COP29 in Baku. ICCI coordinated a joint AMI statement and press conference in the final days of negotiations to help hold the line on the lower 1.5C Paris Agreement limit with reference to the global consequences of cryospheric collapse for each fraction of a degree temperature rise.

State of the Cryosphere Report Cryosphere Pavilion at COP29: At COP29 ICCI coordinated the fifth Cryosphere Pavilion this year in collaboration with AMI Co-Chairs Chile and Iceland. The Pavilion hosted a robust series of 80+ side events over the course of two weeks supported eight early career scientist volunteers and a cadre of senior cryosphere scientists many IPCC who engaged with governments media and civil society throughout the COP. The Pavilion exhibit was viewed by at least 45,000 COP delegates and hosted the release of the 2024 State of the Cryosphere Report which has become a benchmark for cryosphere science and policy. As one indication of the respect now garnered by the Report ICCIs Director participates in regular private briefing sessions with the UN Secretary-General alongside IPCC leaders and the report gained substantive public attention and policy engagement. ICCI and or AMI were referenced in roughly 150 news publications from Baku including print TV and radio. Livestreamed recordings of side events reached thousands during the two-week period.