Switzerland and Italy redraw border as melting glaciers shift the frontier

Swizerland and Italy have redrawn part of their border as climate change is melting the glaciers that have historically marked the frontier between the two countries.

The Theodul Glacier, under the famous Matterhorn mountain, lost almost a quarter of its mass between 1973 and 2010. This exposed the rock beneath to the ice, altering the drainage divide and forcing the two neighbours to redraw a roughly 100-metre-long stretch of their border.

“Significant sections of the border are defined by the watershed or the ridge lines of glaciers, firn or perpetual snow,” the Swiss government said in a statement last week. “These formations are changing due to the melting of glaciers.”

Switzerland officially approved the change on Friday. Italy is yet to do the same but because it is a "minor border rectification" only Switzerland needs to approve the 'convention'.

The exact border changes will be implemented and the agreement published once both countries have signed it.

It has looked likely the border would need to move since 2022 when a mountain refuge found itself unsure which country it belonged in.

Where has the Swiss- Italian border been redrawn?

The affected area is the Mattherhorn skiing area, which includes Zermatt and is Europe's fifth biggest skiing resort.

Hikers and skiers can cross freely between Switzerland and Italy’s Valtournenche valley in the resort.

The two countries agreed to adapt the frontier around the landmarks of Testa Grigia, Plateau Rosa, Rifugio Carrel and Gobba di Rollin. 

Borders are redrawn more often than you may think

Switzerland's national mapping agency Swisstopo is in charge of the 7,000 boundary markers along landlocked Switzerland's 1,935-kilometre border with Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Liechtenstein.

They say that border adjustments are frequent and generally settled by comparing readings by surveyors from the border countries, without getting politicians involved.

Swiss glaciers are melting faster than ever

Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth and the high temperatures are causing the continent's glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.

Between 2021 and 2023, Switzerland lost 10 per cent of its glaciers with those in the east and south of the country, where the Matterhorn is located, particularly badly affected.

“Swiss glaciers are melting faster and faster,” the Swiss Academy of Sciences said when the loss was announced.

“The acceleration is dramatic: we have lost as much ice in two years as between 1960 and 1990.”

Summer 2023 was the world’s hottest since records began due to global warming caused by burining fossil fuels. From August to September, the Swiss weather service had to climb to a record altitude of almost 5,300 metres to find the zero-degree 'freezing point' or isotherm.

One of Italy's best known glaciers, Dosdè in the Italian Alps, retreated by seven metres in the last year. There was not enough snow covering the glacier to keep the ice from melting.