Indonesia’s only tropical glaciers, long revered as the “eternal snow” of Papua’s Jayawijaya Mountains, could face disappearance within two years as climate change accelerates their melting, threatening the unique ecosystem and sacred cultural sites.

The glaciers, perched atop Puncak Jaya – also known as the Carstensz Pyramid, the highest point in Oceania at nearly 4,900 metres above sea level – and the neighbouring Sumantri Peak have already thinned at a pace that scientists say is unprecedented.

Indonesia’s National Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said this month that the ice’s thickness had shrunk to four metres, down from six metres last December and a steep drop from the 32 metres recorded when measuring instruments were first installed in 2010.

“It’s worrying, we’ve predicted this since 2019. With the presence of El Niño, it can accelerate the melting of the ice. At that time we predicted that maybe before 2026 the ice would disappear,” Donaldi Sukma Permana, coordinator of climatology instrument standardisation at the BMKG, told This Week in Asia.

El Niño refers to the warming of the ocean surface that periodically occurs in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The climate phenomenon can cause extreme weather events such as extreme heat, droughts and flooding.

Donaldi said that the shrinkage showed that climate change “is real and happening in Indonesia”.