Sea level rise

Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by 15–25 cm (6–10 in), with an increase of 2.3 mm (0.091 in) per year since the 1970s.^[3]: 1216 This was faster than the sea level had ever risen over at least the past 3,000 years.^[3]: 1216 The rate accelerated to 4.62 mm (0.182 in)/yr for the decade 2013–2022.^[4] Climate change due to human activities is the main cause.^{[5]: 5, 8} Between 1993 and 2018, melting ice sheets and glaciers accounted for 44% of sea level rise, with another 42% resulting from thermal expansion of water.^[6]: 1576

Sea level rise lags behind changes in the Earth's temperature by many decades, and sea level rise will therefore continue to accelerate between now and 2050 in response to warming that has already happened.^[7] What happens after that depends on human greenhouse gas emissions. If there are very deep cuts in emissions, sea level rise would slow between 2050 and 2100. It could then reach by 2100 slightly over 30 cm (1 ft) from now and approximately 60 cm (2 ft) from the 19th century. With high emissions it would instead accelerate further, and could rise by 1.0 m (3+1⁄3 ft) or even 1.6 m (5+1⁄3 ft) by 2100.^{[5][3]: 1302} In the long run, sea level rise would amount to 2–3 m (7–10 ft) over the next 2000 years if warming stays to its current 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) over the pre-industrial past. It would be 19–22 metres (62–72 ft) if warming peaks at 5 °C (9.0 °F).^[5]: 21

Rising seas affect every coastal and island population on Earth.^[8] This can be through flooding, higher storm surges, king tides, and tsunamis. There are many knock-on effects. They lead to loss of coastal ecosystems like mangroves. Crop yields may reduce because of increasing salt levels in irrigation water. Damage to ports disrupts sea trade.^[9][10] The sea level rise projected by 2050 will expose places currently inhabited by tens of millions of people to annual flooding. Without a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, this may increase to hundreds of millions in the latter decades of the century.^[11]

Local factors like tidal range or land subsidence will greatly affect the severity of impacts. For instance, sea level rise in the United States is likely to be two to three times greater than the global average by the end of the century.^[12][13] Yet, of the 20 countries with the greatest exposure to sea level rise, twelve are in Asia, including Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.^[14] The resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems and countries also varies, which will result in more or less pronounced impacts.^[15] The greatest impact on human populations in the near term will occur in the low-lying Caribbean and Pacific islands. Sea level rise will make many of them uninhabitable later this century.^[16]

Societies can adapt to sea level rise in multiple ways. Managed retreat, accommodating coastal change, or protecting against sea level rise through hard-construction practices like seawalls^[17] are hard approaches. There are also soft approaches such as dune rehabilitation and beach nourishment. Sometimes these adaptation strategies go hand in hand. At other times choices must be made among different strategies.^[18] Poorer nations may also struggle to implement the same approaches to adapt to sea level rise as richer states.