Global costs of protecting against sea-level rise at 1.5 to 4.0 °C

Brown, Sally, Jenkins, Katie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6740-5139, Goodwin, Philip, Lincke, Daniel, Vafeidis, Athanasios T., Tol, Richard S. J., Jenkins, Rhosanna, Warren, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0122-1599, Nicholls, Robert J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9715-1109, Jevrejeva, Svetlana, Arcilla, Agustin Sanchez and Haigh, Ivan D. (2021) Global costs of protecting against sea-level rise at 1.5 to 4.0 °C. Climatic Change, 167 (1-2). ISSN 0165-0009

[thumbnail of Brown2021_Article_GlobalCosts]
Preview
PDF (Brown2021_Article_GlobalCosts) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Sea levels will rise, even with stringent climate change mitigation. Mitigation will slow the rate of rise. There is limited knowledge on how the costs of coastal protection vary with alternative global warming levels of 1.5 to 4.0 °C. Analysing six sea-level rise scenarios (0.74 to 1.09 m, 50th percentile) across these warming levels, and five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, this paper quantifies the economic costs of flooding and protection due to sea-level rise using the Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment (DIVA) modelling framework. Results are presented for World Bank income groups and five selected countries from the present to 2100. Annual sea flood damage costs without additional adaptation are more influenced by socio-economic development than sea-level rise, indicating that there are opportunities to control risk with development choices. In contrast, annual sea dike investment costs are more dependent on the magnitude of sea-level rise. In terms of total costs with adaptation, upper middle, low middle and low income groups are projected to have higher relative costs as a proportion of GDP compared with high income groups. If low income countries protected now, flood costs could be reduced after 2050 and beyond. However, without further adaptation, their coasts will experience growing risks and costs leaving them increasingly reliant on emergency response measures. Without mitigation or adaptation, greater inequalities in damage costs between income groups could result. At country level, annual sea flood damage costs without additional adaptation are projected to rapidly increase with approximately 0.2 m of sea-level rise, leaving limited time to plan and adapt.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: adaptation,cost,damage,dike,sea-level rise,global and planetary change,atmospheric science,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Pharmacy
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 08 Jul 2021 00:07
Last Modified: 08 Mar 2024 13:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/80446
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-021-03130-z

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item