A new study released by Nature this week indicates sea level rise will become unmanageable at just 1.5C of global heating and lead to “catastrophic inland migration,” displacing hundreds of millions from coastal areas.
Warming of +1.5 °C is too high for polar ice sheets
DOI: /10.1038/s43247-025-02299-w
Authors: Chris R. Stokes, Jonathan L. Bamber, Andrea Dutton & Robert M. DeConto (Ex officio CliC SSG member)
The international target to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C is already almost out of reach. But the new analysis found that even if fossil fuel emissions were rapidly slashed to meet it, sea levels would be rising by 1cm a year by the end of the century, faster than the speed at which nations could build coastal defences.
