Sea level off Dutch coast could rise much faster: report
The sea level off the Dutch coast could rise by 1.2 meters around 2100 compared to the beginning of this century if the greenhouse gas emissions do not reduce. As the melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet at the South Pole accelerates, the KNMI said "even a 2-meter rise in sea level by 2100 is in sight."
The sea level off the Dutch coast could rise much faster than expected, by up to two meters by 2100, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) warned on Monday.
The sea level off the Dutch coast could rise by 1.2 meters around 2100 compared to the beginning of this century if the greenhouse gas emissions do not reduce, the KNMI said in a new report.
"As the melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet at the South Pole accelerates, even a 2-meter rise in sea level by 2100 is in sight," it added.
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The new insights in KNMI's report are based on the August report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and supplemented with its own research.
The calculated sea level rise has now been adjusted upwards. In 2014, the KNMI calculated that in 2100 the limit would be one meter at most.
In line with the IPCC, the KNMI noted that the climate in the Netherlands is changing fast. "With this report, the urgency of the rapidly occurring climate change becomes clear," the weather institute said.
In addition to the rising sea level, the KNMI also foresees an increase in dry springs and summers and more extreme summer rain. "Our climate is increasingly moving towards the climate of southern Europe," it said.
