Indonesia’s tropical ‘Eternity Glaciers’ could vanish within a few years, experts warn

Two of the world’s few tropical glaciers in Indonesia are melting, and their ice may vanish by 2026 or sooner, as an El Niño weather pattern lengthens the dry season, the country’s geophysics agency has said.

Indonesia, home to a third of the world’s rainforest after Brazil and Congo, expects the dry season could run until October as El Niño increases the risk of forest fires and threatens supplies of clean water.

While the agency has warned that the Pacific weather phenomenon could make this year’s dry season the most severe since 2019, one of its climate researchers said it could also imperil the south-east Asian country’s 12,000-year-old tropical glaciers.

“The glaciers might vanish before 2026, or even faster, and El Niño could accelerate the melting process,” said Donaldi Permana, referring to the so-called “Eternity Glaciers”.

The glaciers, which he said were among the few left in the tropics, are the 4,884-metre-high (16,000ft) Carstensz Pyramid and the East Northwall Firn, which is 4,700m (15,420ft) high, in the Jayawijaya mountains in the easternmost region of Papua.

The glaciers had thinned significantly in the past few years, Donaldi said, going from 32 metres in depth (105ft) in 2010 to eight metres (26ft) in 2021, while their total width fell from from 2.4km (1.5 miles) in 2000 to 230 metres (755ft) in 2022.

But little could be done to prevent the shrinking, he said, adding that the event could disrupt the regional ecosystem and trigger a rise in the global sea level within a decade.

“We are now in a position to document the glaciers’ extinction,” added Donaldi, a coordinator of the climate research division of the agency, known as BMKG. “At least we can tell future generations that we used to have glaciers.”

In addition to Papua, tropical glaciers may be found in the Andes of South America and the mountains of Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and Rwenzory in Africa.

Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of coal, and aims to reach net zero emissions by 2060. Coal-fired power makes up more than half its energy supply.

Last year it set an ambitious deadline of 2030 to cut emissions by 31.89% on its own, or by 43.2% with international support.