From March 20 to 21, 2025, the United Nations held an event at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to celebrate the 1^st World Glacier Day. During the event, the United Nations organized dialogues on the current state of the world’s glaciers and their impact on global water security, communities, and ecosystems through brainstorming sessions, high-level roundtable meetings, and parallel side events. The discussions aimed to advance the "Decade of Action on Cryosphere Science (2025-2034)." Prof Yao Tandong, a Chinese Academy of Sciences member and TPE co-Chair participated as one of the five keynote speekers to share his views on actions to protect glaciers on and around the Tibetan Plateau.

In his speech, he presented the scientific actions of the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition regarding glaciers and development in the Asian Water Tower region. He mainly highlighted three key themes: international cooperation, an Earth system science perspective, and science in service of decision-making. In his view, addressing glacier changes under climate change requires mobilizing international scientific and technological capabilities. Besides, interdisciplinary collaboration should be fostered among scientists from various fields, and closely aligning with the needs and well-being of local governments and communities to provide informed policy recommendations.