GENEVA: Global sea levels are rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements in 1993 to 2002 and hit a new record high last year, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday (Apr 21), warning that the trend would continue for millennia.
Extreme glacier melt and record ocean heat levels – which cause water to expand – contributed to an average rise in sea levels of 4.62mm a year between 2013 to 2022, the UN agency said in a major report detailing the havoc of climate change.
That is about double the pace of the first decade on record, 1993 to 2002, leading to a total increase of over 10 cm since the early 1990s.
“We have already lost this melting of glaciers game and sea level rise game so that’s bad news,” WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas told a press conference. That is because such high levels of greenhouse gases have already been emitted that waters would continue to rise for “thousands of years”.
Rising sea levels threaten some coastal cities and the very existence of low-lying states such as the island of Tuvalu, which plans to build a digital version of itself in case it is submerged.
The annual report, released a day ahead of Earth Day, also showed that sea ice in Antarctica receded to record lows last June and July. Oceans were the warmest on record, with around 58 per cent of their surfaces experiencing a marine heatwave, it said.
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