Climate & Environment
Sea Level Rise
The ongoing rise in mean sea level driven by ocean warming and land-ice loss — one of the most certain and consequential climate impacts.
Definition
Sea level rise is the increase in global mean sea level caused primarily by thermal expansion of warming ocean water and the melting of glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Satellite records show global mean sea level rising at over 4 mm per year and accelerating; the IPCC projects continued rise of roughly half a metre to around one metre by 2100 depending on emissions, with multi-metre rise committed over centuries and potentially much more if ice-sheet instability thresholds are crossed.
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