The IPCC says its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, released this morning, provides new evidence for the benefits of limiting global warming to the lowest possible level – in line with the goal governments set themselves in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“The open sea, the Arctic, the Antarctic and the high mountains may seem far away to many people,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “But we depend on them and are influenced by them directly and indirectly in many ways – for weather and climate, for food and water, for energy, trade, transport, recreation and tourism, for health and wellbeing, for culture and identity.”
According to Lee, if we reduce emissions sharply, consequences for people and their livelihoods will still be challenging, but potentially more manageable for those who are most vulnerable. “We increase our ability to build resilience and there will be more benefits for sustainable development,” he said.
A total of 670 million people in high mountain regions and 680 million people in low-lying coastal zones depend directly on the ocean and cryosphere, according to the IPCC. Four million people live permanently in the Arctic region, meanwhile, and small island developing states are home to 65 million people.
“The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been ‘taking the heat’ from climate change for decades, and consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe,” said Ko Barrett, Vice-Chair of the IPCC. “The rapid changes to the ocean and the frozen parts of our planet are forcing people from coastal cities to remote Arctic communities to fundamentally alter their ways of life,” she added.
Barrett explained that the report provides a complete picture of water – “the lifeblood of our planet” – around the globe and its interconnections.
Released this morning in Monaco, the report details that the oceans are warmer, more acidic and less productive. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are causing sea level rise and coastal extreme events are becoming more severe.
The special report was produced by more than 100 authors from 36 countries, and references roughly 7,000 scientific publications.
While sea-level rose around 15 cm globally during the 20th century, it is now rising more than twice as fast, at 3.6 mm per year, according to the report. By 2100 if greenhouse emissions continue to increase strongly, sea-level rise could reach 60-110 cm.
“In recent decades the rate of sea level rise has accelerated, due to growing water inputs from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, in addition to the contribution of meltwater from glaciers and the expansion of warmer sea waters,” said Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I. “This new assessment has also revised upwards the projected contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to sea level rise by 2100 in the case of high emissions of greenhouse gases. The wide range of sea level projections for 2100 and beyond is related to how ice sheets will react to warming, especially in Antarctica, with major uncertainties still remaining.”
The report can be found in full at the IPCC website.