Cryosphere and related hazards in High Mountain Asia in a changing climate

The international conference will bring together over 150 researchers, practitioners, policy and decision-makers, government representatives, youth, and development partners from Central Asia, South Asia and beyond, working in the cryosphere, disaster risk reduction, and climate sectors.

The conference aims to provide a platform to share knowledge, best practices, and ideas for the sustainable development of societies in High Mountain Asia (HMA) in the context of climate change. Discussions will focus on the climate-cryosphere-community nexus, contributing to the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 13. It will also contribute to SDG 17 by leveraging regional platforms for collaboration and partnership.

This event will be built on presentations and discussions, highlighting research frontiers, research opportunities and gaps, scientific uncertainties, and policy impact on larger populations in HMA.

The conference will also consist of sessions to ideate how best to engage and support youths and early career researchers for further research in areas of climate-cryosphere-communities nexus, and how best to benefit from citizen science. The final day will focus on a science-policy dialogue on this topic and the ways forward.