Sea level has risen over 20 centimeters globally since 1880, and this process is accelerating. The scientific community can now rely on more data than ever to produce usable knowledge, and pushes the ambition to find solutions by getting science together with policy-making. In a two-day international conference organized by the Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise in Venice scientists, professionals and stakeholders engaged in a productive dialogue, sharing the latest global and local data on sea level rise and assessing the possible future scenarios for climate change mitigation and adaptation in European coasts.

Global mean sea level – warns NASA – has risen about 21–24 centimeters since 1880 and, according to the IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Sixth Assessment Report released last year, it will continue to rise during the 21st century by 28-55 cm if we move on low emissions pathways, and up to 63-100 in case of high emissions scenarios, primarily due to thermal expansion and mass loss from glaciers and ice sheets.

“Sea level rise is a risk to society, from local to global.” On this statement by Sylvie Joussaume from the French National Centre for Scientific Research and Governing Council of the Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise, the Sea Level Rise Conference 2022 kicked off on Monday 17 October 2022.

The two-day international event gathered over 300 among researchers, stakeholders and policy professionals in Venice at the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista and online to assess and exchange on the currently available and required scientific knowledge, policy development and implementation on regional-to-local sea level change in Europe.

“Sea level rise is accelerating” affirmed Prof. Nadia Pinardi, Co-chair of the Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise, member of CMCC Strategic Board and full professor of Oceanography at the University of Bologna, introducing the conference. “We are facing something that we could have expected, and now we have strong evidence that it is happening. We have lots of data from satellites and other sources, and less uncertainty. This is a big challenge. A global challenge.”

​​“The extent of Antarctica’s contribution to future climate change is the source of most of the uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise with significant implications” explained Florence Colleoni, OGS glaciologist who participated in the conference. “Ocean warming triggers instability processes on the floating platforms on the coast of Antarctica that last for several centuries and lead to a rise in sea level of several meters. Due to the high thermal capacity of the glaciers and the polar ice caps, the rise of the oceans will have an impact on several generations which means that glaciers and ice caps will continue to melt for several centuries to millennia into the future if warming is stopped today” affirmed Colleoni.

“In order to create adaptive pathways, knowledge of the system and data availability are important, but we also need clear guiding principles to lead policies and reduce transaction costs, and long term visions” concluded Giulia Galluccio – CMCC, Co-leader of Task Group: Policy, Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise  and Vice-Chair of JPI Climate. “We must call on our policy makers to work on them with the help of scientists, on the basis of available data tackling uncertainties. But most importantly, we need people: different perspectives, local and past knowledge and an inclusive approach are what really makes the difference.”

The conference was organized by the networking platform Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise, a joint effort between JPI (Joint Programming Initiative) Climate and JPI Oceans, along with its partners – the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS and the Consortium for coordination of research activities concerning the Venice lagoon system (CORILA) – and with endorsement by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Knowledge Hub’s ambition is to promote the exchange, synthesis, integration and generation of knowledge on historical and future sea level rise. To this aim, it provides periodic assessments of knowledge on sea level rise drivers, impacts and policy options for each of the major ocean basins around Europe.

​​The conference was organized in the heart of one of the most symbolic cities with regards to vulnerability to sea level rise. “As it happened in Venice, it can happen in other places in the world. Venice is the oldest city of the future” affirmed Pierpaolo Campostrini, managing director of CORILA, while showing the impacts of the 2019 extreme event that hit Venice damaging its cultural heritage, including S. Mark’s Basilica. An extreme event that warns about a trend that is expected to continue with more frequency and intensity. “We have cultural heritage at risk. S. Mark’s Basilica was consacrated in 1094, when the local mean sea level was more than 1 meter lower than today. The aging of our cultural heritage is accelerating.”

“We have the ambition to do something that will bring us forward,” explained Pinardi. “The common work of the two Joint Programming Initiatives – JPI Climate and JPI Oceans – represents a very important step in getting science together with policy-making”. The broad scope of the conference was indeed to foster a productive dialogue between science and European coastal managers, who had the possibility to share their specific needs at the local level and merge them with global data from the most recent research, bringing the two communities closer.

This conference marked the end of the first phase of the initiative designed by the two JPIs: the creation of an interactive platform that links scientists and stakeholders working on level rise in Europe. The next phase will consist in taking the results and data emerged from the meeting and shape them into a brand new assessment report on the different levels of risks connected to sea level rise on all European coasts: a first-of-its-kind document that will include guidelines and examples of present and expected impacts. The third and last phase will deal with the future legacy of the Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise: it will either become part of an existing European agency, or rise as a new European infrastructure on adaptation to sea level rise on European coasts.

For more information:

Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise website