Webinar of the Alpine Climate Board: « Permafrost thawing in the Alps: New insights on risks, monitoring & hazard management »
In June 2023, thousands of tonnes of rock broke off the Fluchthorn massif in the Silvretta Alps, taking off part of the southern summit. This incident – which fortunately did not lead to any casualties – shows impressively how climate change affects the stability of permafrost and that there is a great need for action. We need to get a better understanding about permafrost distribution in the Alpine regions, its stability, and what kind of risks and hazards are expected by this increasingly thawing high-mountain permafrost in the future.
The Alpine Climate Board (ACB), a working body of the Alpine Convention (AC), wants to bring you up to date on the latest scientific findings related to permafrost in the Alps and where we stand with respect to a cross-border and integrated monitoring (as part of our Climate Action Plan 2.0). Moreover, the ACB wants to highlight activities demonstrating how different stakeholders in the Alps deal with permafrost thawing and which risk management measures are already being implemented or foreseen.