'Best estimate' for impact of melting ice on sea level rise

Researchers say they now have the most accurate estimate yet for the impact of the melting of ice sheets.

Researchers have published their most advanced calculation for the likely impact of melting ice on global sea levels.

The EU funded team say the ice sheets and glaciers could add 36.8 centimetres to the oceans by 2100.

Adding in other factors, sea levels could rise by up to 69 centimetres, higher than previous predictions.

The researchers say there is a very small chance that the seas around Britain could rise by a meter.

“The previous IPCC identified this gap in our knowledge, we've addressed that gap and what we've found is not scary” Prof Tony Payne, University of Bristol

The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was highly detailed about many aspects of Earth's changing climate in the coming decades,

Advanced models

While they estimated that sea levels could rise by 18-59 centimetres by 2100, they were very unsure about the role played by the melting of ice sheets and mountain glaciers.

To fill the void, the EU funded experts from 24 institutions in Europe and beyond to try and come up with more accurate figures on the melting of ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland and how this might swell the oceans.