Climate change has driven 16% drop in ‘snow meltwater’ from Asia’s high mountains

Jun 28, 2021

There are three key water sources – snow meltwater, glacial meltwater and rainfall Image: Unsplash/Melissa Bradley

Ayesha Tandon

Science Journalist, Carbon Brief

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Climate Change is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Climate Change

Map of high-mountain Asia, showing major rivers and basins. Image: Kraaijenbrink et al (2021)

The four snow meltwater regimes, and the rivers that they feed. Image: Kraaijenbrink et al (2021)

Have you read?

Annual snowmelt in high-mountain Asia (percent change from present day

Percentage change in annual snowmelt volume compared to the present day – defined as the 1999-2019 average. Image: Kraaijenbrink et al (2021)

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on Climate Change
See all

Explainer: What is climate justice?

Ewan Thomson

December 8, 2023

These 5 cities are embracing passive cooling for a sustainable urban future

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

December 8, 2023

Strategic Intelligence Outlook: climate litigation, economic strains and more in store for 2024

Abhinav Chugh, Tarika Lall and Sargun Kaur Lalia

December 7, 2023

COP28: What is the First Movers Coalition and what has it achieved so far?

Kate Whiting

December 6, 2023

Science for sustainable development: how recent research could help us meet climate goals

Ewan Thomson

December 6, 2023

COP28: Bridging the climate finance gap in Africa and beyond

Landry Signé and Chido Munyati

December 6, 2023