SEA-LEVEL RISE A MAJOR THREAT TO INDIA, OTHER NATIONS: WMO

General Studies Paper 3

• Context: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) cautioned that sea level rise  poses a serious threat to both China and India in a report titled “Global Sea-Level Rise and Implications.”
• Findings of the “Global Sea-Level Rise and Implications” report:
• Sea level rise varies regionally
• It will encroach upon Infrastructure and coastal communities will be encroached upon
• It affects a number of major cities on every continent: Shanghai, Dhaka, Bangkok, Jakarta, Mumbai, Copenhagen, New York, Buenos Aires, Santiago, etc.
• Poses a significant economic, social, and humanitarian problem(threatens coastal farmlands, water reserves, the resilience of infrastructures, food-nutrition security, human lives and livelihoods), especially in vulnerable areas.
• Along with other climate concerns, it will affect coastal ecosystems, related development and beyond 1 billion people by 2050
• Growing Urbanization in exposed areas will exacerbate the effects.
• It is reinforced by storm surges and tidal variations as seen during the landfall of hurricane Sandy (New York) and Cyclone Idai (Mozambique)

Reasons behind sea-level rise:

• Increase in average global temperature (by over 1°C since 1880)
• Thermal expansion of seawater (leading to mean sea level increasing by ~20 cm)
• Glacier and ice-sheet melt
• Changes in groundwater storage.

Challenges:

• According to the IPCC, melting ice sheets (the largest contributor to sea level change) are hard to predict.
• By 2150, global sea level rise is estimated to rise by roughly 4, 0.5 and 0.2 m under high, mid and low-emission scenarios, respectively.
• Limiting 21st-century global surface temperature rise to 2 °C above the pre-industrial level ( ’Paris Agreements target) would be insufficient.

Way ahead:

• A low greenhouse gas emission scenario, with temperatures staying below 1.5 °C
• Reaching net zero carbon emissions before 2060.
• Particularly along the coast, urban systems must enable climate-resilient development.