GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — All 19 of the world’s glacier regions experienced a net loss of mass in 2024 for the third consecutive year, the United Nations (UN) said on Friday, warning that saving the planet’s glaciers was now a matter of “survival.”

Five of the last six years have seen the most rapid glacier retreat on record, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) weather, climate and water agency said, on the inaugural World Day for Glaciers.

“Preservation of glaciers is not just an environmental, economic and societal necessity: it’s a matter of survival,” said WMO chief Celeste Saulo.

Beyond the continental ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, more than 275,000 glaciers worldwide cover approximately 700,000 square kilometers, said the WMO.

But they are rapidly shrinking due to climate change.

“The 2024 hydrological year marked the third year in a row in which all 19 glacier regions experienced a net mass loss,” the WMO added.

Together, they lost 450 billion tons of mass, the agency said, citing new data from the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service.

It was the fourth worst year on record, with the worst being in 2023.