The rate of change in some regions has been particularly extreme. Central Europe, for example, has lost 39% of its glacier ice in little over 20 years.

The novelty of this study, published in the journal Nature, external, is not so much finding that glaciers are melting faster and faster – we already knew that. Instead, its strength lies in drawing together evidence from across the research community.

There are various ways of estimating how glaciers are changing, from field measurements to different types of satellite data. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Direct measurements on glaciers, for example, give very detailed information, but are only available for a tiny fraction of the more than 200,000 glaciers worldwide.

By systematically combining these different approaches, scientists can be much more certain about what’s going on.

These community estimates “are vital as they give people confidence to make use of their findings”, said Andy Shepherd, head of the Department of Geography and Environment at Northumbria University, who was not an author of the recent study.

“That includes other climate scientists, governments, and industry, plus of course anyone who is concerned about the impacts of global warming.”

Glaciers take time to fully respond to a changing climate – depending on their size, anywhere between a few years and many decades.

That means they will continue to melt in the years ahead.

But, crucially, the amount of ice lost by the end of the century will strongly depend on how much humanity continues to warm the planet by releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

This could be the difference between losing a quarter of the world’s glacier ice, if global climate targets are met, and nearly half if warming continues uncontrolled, the study warns.

“Every tenth of a degree of warming that we can avoid will save some glaciers, and will save us from a lot of damage,” Prof Zemp explained.