The Paris Agreement is considered a breakthrough in the fight for climate change when 197 countries signed it in December of 2015 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was able to unite all nations to combat the rising threat of climate change. One of the goals of this agreement is to accelerate and intensify the development of a sustainable, low-carbon future.
However, a new study shows that regardless of whether or not the countries who signed under this agreement performed their part of the deal, those efforts will never be enough to combat the rise in sea levels.
A CONSTANT THREAT
According to the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the global mean sea-level rise has continued to increase since 1900 and it is currently accelerating to rising at least three millimeters per year. The factors that give way to the global mean sea-level rise are the following: ocean thermal expansion, melting glaciers, and the ice sheets from Antarctica and Greenland, which are also melting at an increasing rate.
Although the oceans are responding slowly to the increase in numerous trapped greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the threat is constantly knocking. Hypothetically speaking, if all countries concentrated their efforts in reducing carbon emissions, the rise of the sea level will reach only 3 feet by the year 2300.
However, due to the fact that first-world nations continue releasing carbon emissions left and right, scientists foresee that the rise in sea level will be much worse than a single meter.
THE METHODOLOGY
To explain the seriousness of the situation, the team of international scientists behind the study created a sea-level emulator which took into account the melting of the ice sheets from Greenland and the Antarctic, the glaciers, and the ocean thermal expansion. They also took into consideration the land–water storage, which includes dams.
The study includes data of emissions that date as far as 1750. In conclusion, the scientists suggest that all nations should be aggressive and ambitious to reach their goals with regard to the Paris Agreement.
Critics of climate change will continue to deny the existence of the rise in sea levels, often questioning the effect of meter rise in Earth's waters.
Communities near coastal areas will feel the direct effect of the sea-level rise. The global mean sea level rise is a big threat to ecosystems, livelihood, and the heritage of millions of people around the world. The sea level has continued to rise around 20 centimeters since the beginning of the 1900s and is now accelerating.
A TIMELY WARNING
It came as a shock when the news broke that Donald Trump is planning to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement and this is alarming since the United States is among the top five contributors of carbon emissions in the world.
The publication of this study is considered timely as Trump begins his actions towards the withdrawal of the US from the said agreement. In an interview with the Associated Press Gregg Marland, a professor from the Appalachian State University explains: "Global objectives can't be met unless everybody does their part and the U.S. has to play the game."
