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Estimating global mean sea-level rise and its uncertainties by 2100 and 2300 from an expert survey

  • Sea-level rise projections and knowledge of their uncertainties are vital to make informed mitigation and adaptation decisions. To elicit projections from members of the scientific community regarding future global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise, we repeated a survey originally conducted five years ago. Under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 106 experts projected a likely (central 66% probability) GMSL rise of 0.30-0.65 m by 2100, and 0.54-2.15 m by 2300, relative to 1986-2005. Under RCP 8.5, the same experts projected a likely GMSL rise of 0.63-1.32 m by 2100, and 1.67-5.61 m by 2300. Expert projections for 2100 are similar to those from the original survey, although the projection for 2300 has extended tails and is higher than the original survey. Experts give a likelihood of 42% (original survey) and 45% (current survey) that under the high-emissions scenario GMSL rise will exceed the upper bound (0.98 m) of the likely range estimated by the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whichSea-level rise projections and knowledge of their uncertainties are vital to make informed mitigation and adaptation decisions. To elicit projections from members of the scientific community regarding future global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise, we repeated a survey originally conducted five years ago. Under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 106 experts projected a likely (central 66% probability) GMSL rise of 0.30-0.65 m by 2100, and 0.54-2.15 m by 2300, relative to 1986-2005. Under RCP 8.5, the same experts projected a likely GMSL rise of 0.63-1.32 m by 2100, and 1.67-5.61 m by 2300. Expert projections for 2100 are similar to those from the original survey, although the projection for 2300 has extended tails and is higher than the original survey. Experts give a likelihood of 42% (original survey) and 45% (current survey) that under the high-emissions scenario GMSL rise will exceed the upper bound (0.98 m) of the likely range estimated by the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is considered to have an exceedance likelihood of 17%. Responses to open-ended questions suggest that the increases in upper-end estimates and uncertainties arose from recent influential studies about the impact of marine ice cliff instability on the meltwater contribution to GMSL rise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.show moreshow less

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Author details:Benjamin P. HortonORCiD, Nicole S. KhanORCiD, Niamh CahillORCiD, Janice S. H. LeeORCiD, Timothy A. ShawORCiD, Andra J. GarnerORCiD, Andrew C. Kemp, Simon E. EngelhartORCiD, Stefan RahmstorfORCiDGND
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-0121-5
ISSN:2397-3722
Title of parent work (English):npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Publisher:Springer Nature
Place of publishing:London
Publication type:Article
Language:English
Date of first publication:2020/05/08
Publication year:2020
Release date:2024/03/11
Tag:Greenland; climate; consequences; projections
Volume:3
Issue:1
Article number:18
Number of pages:8
First page:1
Last Page:8
Organizational units:Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie
DDC classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik
Peer review:Referiert
Publishing method:Open Access / Gold Open-Access
DOAJ gelistet
License (German):License LogoCC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
External remark:Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 1437
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