Climate change accelerating faster than expected

Sydney, November 26 (ANI): A group of international scientists has said that the most recent observations show that climate change is accelerating faster than expected.

According to a report by ABC News, the team of scientists has collated the most recent data and observations, and they have found that climate change is accelerating beyond expectations.

Most of the 26 scientists are authors of reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

They have updated the panel's latest scientific projections and their observations show an acceleration of change.

Their research says that the Arctic may be ice-free by the summer of 2030 and sea levels could reach the upper limit of 2 metres by the turn of the century.

Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales is a contributing author to the report and he has determined that things are changing rapidly.

"Over the last few years, some of those indicators have accelerated, some are right where the IPCC forecast, but the mix of all of the indicators tells us that, if anything, the IPCC projections were slightly conservative," he said.

"They were absolutely on the money for some metrics, but for things like Arctic sea ice, the system there has changed much more rapidly than any scientists envisaged," he added.

According to the scientists' observations, sea levels have risen more than five centimetres over the past 15 years - about 80 percent higher than IPCC projections made in 2001.

Also, the Arctic sea ice melt over the last two years was about 40 percent greater than the last forecast.

Professor England said that the observed rate of summer ice melt is now running faster than any climate model can predict.

"The Arctic sea ice was thought to be something we saw that we would continue to see during summer time right through to the end of this century, and possibly even beyond," he said.

"At the moment we may have an Arctic that is ice-free in summer as early as about 2030 and that really is bringing forward that ice melt much closer to now than we had previously thought," he added.

The scientists say gthat lobal warming could reach as high as 7 degree Celsius by the turn of the century if emissions are not curbed.

With that in mind, the scientists say that global emissions must peak, then decline rapidly within a decade if the worst of climate change is to be avoided. (ANI)