Why are Italy and Switzerland redrawing their Alpine border?

Switzerland and Italy realigned their shared border in the Alps last week, forced by melting glaciers that, along with huge snowdrifts, define large parts of the territorial border between the Central European neighbors.

In May 2023, an agreement to change the border was drawn up between Switzerland and Italy. The agreement was approved by Switzerland last week and is awaiting approval from Italy. The border change will take place under the Matterhorn mountain, which surrounds the two countries.

Unlike many border changes that are often the result of war or conflict, there is no dispute between Italy and Switzerland regarding this change. However, the driver of that change is a concern for both: climate change, which has been causing glaciers to melt since at least the 1970s.

So how is melting ice changing the border between Switzerland and Italy, where is the border between the two changing, and is Europe seeing more melting ice in general?

How and why is the Swiss-Italian border moving?

“In the high mountains, important parts of the Italian-Swiss border are determined by watercourses, represented by glaciers, snowfields and eternal snow,” the Swiss government explained in a statement on September 27. “However, with melting glaciers, these natural elements change and redefine national borders as they are dynamically defined.

In short, the ridge that runs through the highest points in the glacier on the Matterhorn River serves as the natural border between Italy and Switzerland. It is defined as a line along which any ice melt can fall in either direction.

As the glacier melts, the highest points – and therefore the ridge connecting them – have moved slightly further into Italy. In other words, the Swiss will get less territory under the new border agreement.

Is this the only example of melting glaciers changing boundaries?

Nope. This is not just an issue between Italy and Switzerland. A new border agreement was signed between Italy and Austria in 2006.

In their book, A Moving Border: Alpine Cartographies of Climate Change, Marco Ferrari, Elisa Pasqual and Andrea Bagnato examined how melting glaciers and shifting water basins affect the borders between Italy, Austria and Switzerland.

Explaining their findings in an interview with Vox 2022, Ferrari said that many analysts involved in mapping and studying the boundaries of the borders have found that the ice was melting and the snow was not being replaced. The constant melting of the ice would gradually affect the natural shape of the border.

Does the changed border affect anything?

Switzerland and neighboring parts of Italy rely heavily on tourism linked to skiing and other Alpine sports for their economy. In fact, the economies of neighboring regions are often integrated.

Ski destinations such as Zermatt in Switzerland attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each season, but access the ski scene that is shared by Italian hotels.

Melting ice affects both. But maintaining the glaciers and ensuring their health is the responsibility of the country where they are located – and open borders are important for Italy and Switzerland to know which part of each border glacier they are responsible for respectively.

Still, even with a shifting border, neighbors will need to cooperate. Snowfalls, for example, do not respect borders – they can start in one country and end in another. This can complicate matters when it comes to billing for damages or lost lives.

In April this year, three people were killed in an avalanche near Zermatt. Meteorologists attributed the sudden avalanche to melting glaciers caused by temperature changes that have weakened layers in the snowpack.

On July 3, 2022, 11 climbers lost their lives on the summit of Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Dolomites, due to a fall of rock and ice. The glacier collapsed, causing ice, rocks and snow on the climbers.

How are Europe’s glaciers affected by climate change?

According to a recent report from the Swiss Academy of Sciences, Switzerland’s glaciers will lose 4 percent of their volume in 2023 and shrink even more by 6 percent in 2022. That’s a loss of 10 percent of their ice volume in two years. ago. expected loss in the future.

That loss of volume is equivalent to the amount of ice lost between 1960 and 1990. Some areas face an average of 3 meters (about 10 feet) of ice melt over the two-year period from 2022 to 2023, recorded at elevations of more than 3,200 meters. (about 10,500 feet).

According to the European Climate Study 2023, compiled by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Europe is close to the Arctic where land areas are most affected by extreme weather events. Additionally, ocean and air currents across Europe are warmer.

Excessive melting of ice has several knock-on effects besides avalanches.

As glaciers lose their ice and snow cover, this reduces their ability to reflect sunlight. This reduced “albedo effect” causes more warming, which speeds up the melting process. As a result, a self-reinforcing cycle emerges, where the initial melting causes further ice loss, continuing and intensifying the ice retreat.

The 2023 report also states the following:

• 2023 was the second warmest on record in Europe, at 1.02–1.12C (1.8–2F) above average.
• The three warmest years on record for all of Europe have occurred since 2020, and the 10 warmest since 2007.
• Temperatures in Europe were above average for 11 months of 2023 and September was the warmest on record.
• The winter and fall of 2023 were both the second warmest on record.

Can ice melt be reversed or stopped?

According to the European Union of Geological Sciences, the glaciers will lose half their ice by 2050 even if the planet warms less than 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, a landmark international agreement aimed at addressing climate change and adopted by 196 countries, agreed that limiting global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels should be the mitigation goal. the speed of ice melting and prevent the possible effects of climate change.

More innovative solutions to deal with melting ice include Geotextiles – a white fabric placed over icy areas to reflect the sun and insulate the ice.

The Seabed Curtain Project is a plan to build a large curtain placed under the sea off the coast of Antarctica that would block the flow of warm water to prevent further melting of the ice there.

According to the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland in Finland, the cost of such a project could be $40bn to $80bn plus $1bn to $2bn annually in maintenance costs.