Sea levels are rising close to the upper end of predictions made in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's landmark 2007 report.
Oceanographer and climate scientist John Church, who is writing the chapter on sea level rises for the IPCC's 2013 update, said the world's oceans were on track to rise by between 60cm and 80cm by 2100. "There's no evidence to say that the IPCC has overestimated (the predictions)," Dr Church said. The lower end of the prediction was a rise of about 18cm.
The preeminent climate scientist told the CSIRO's Greenhouse 2011 conference in Cairns yesterday the sea level rises were caused by a combination of factors.
"The largest contributions come from thermal expansion of the ocean and the melting of glaciers and ice caps," Dr Church said, noting that new research showed each contributed to about 40 per cent of the sea level rise.
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