Committed sea-level rise under the Paris Agreement and the legacy of delayed mitigation action

Sea-level rise is a major consequence of climate change that will continue long after emissions of greenhouse gases have stopped. The 2015 Paris Agreement aims at reducing climate-related risks by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero and limiting global-mean temperature increase. Here we qu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Mengel, Matthias, Nauels, Alexander, Rogelj, Joeri, Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5820313/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29463787
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02985-8
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Summary:Sea-level rise is a major consequence of climate change that will continue long after emissions of greenhouse gases have stopped. The 2015 Paris Agreement aims at reducing climate-related risks by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero and limiting global-mean temperature increase. Here we quantify the effect of these constraints on global sea-level rise until 2300, including Antarctic ice-sheet instabilities. We estimate median sea-level rise between 0.7 and 1.2 m, if net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are sustained until 2300, varying with the pathway of emissions during this century. Temperature stabilization below 2 °C is insufficient to hold median sea-level rise until 2300 below 1.5 m. We find that each 5-year delay in near-term peaking of CO2 emissions increases median year 2300 sea-level rise estimates by ca. 0.2 m, and extreme sea-level rise estimates at the 95th percentile by up to 1 m. Our results underline the importance of near-term mitigation action for limiting long-term sea-level rise risks.