Swiss glaciers melt away at record rate

Switzerland's glaciers lost 6 per cent of their total volume this year due to a dry winter and repeated summer heatwaves, shattering previous ice melt records.

The study by the Cryospheric Commission (CC) of the Swiss Academy of Sciences laid bare on September 27 the drastic scale of glacial retreat - which is only set to get worse, TRT World reports.

"2022 was a disastrous year for Swiss glaciers: all ice melt records were smashed," the CC said, adding that a 2 per cent loss in 12 months had previously been considered "extreme".

Some 3 cubic kilometres of ice - 3 trillion litres of water - have melted away, the report said.

"It's not possible to slow down the melting in the short term," said glaciology professor Matthias Huss, head of Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland, which documents long-term glacier changes in the Alps and is coordinated by the CC.

If carbon dioxide emissions are reduced and the climate protected, "this might save about one-third of the total volumes in Switzerland in the best case", he told AFP news agency.

Otherwise, the country "will be losing almost everything by the end of the century".