A team of scientists at the University have been involved in the production of a new special report on climate change. The report, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focuses on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Dr Sally Brown, a senior research fellow within Engineering and the Environment, was lead author on the report’s chapter ‘Impacts of 1.5°C of Global Warming on Natural and Human systems’, and the report also drew on publications by Professor Robert Nicholls, Dr Ivan Haigh and Dr Philip Goodwin.
Our University’s studies indicated that measures to limit global warming to 1.5°C could halve the amount by which sea levels rise by the end of the century, reducing it to 40cm as opposed to 78cm if no action to mitigate for climate change is taken.
If global warming is kept to 2.0°C, sea-levels are projected to rise by 46cm. Beyond 2100, the impact of the 1.5°C aspiration grows substantially as the studies indicate it could reduce sea-level rise by over 3m by 2300.
The scientists also found that by the turn of the century, 740,000 km2 – an area three times the size of the UK – could be exposed to flooding without mitigation. However this figure would reduce by 130,000 km2 over the same period if Governments succeed in hitting the Paris Agreement goals.
By the year 2300, 1,600,000 km2 could be exposed to flooding without mitigation, but climate change mitigation could more than halve this, reducing the total land at risk to 700,000 km2.
More information on the IPCC’s report and the University’s contribution is available here.
