Sea levels rose at more than twice the rate of the first decade of measurements, 1993-2002, and hit a new record last year, the World Meteorological Organization.

Extreme melting of glaciers and record levels of ocean heat – leading to water expansion – contributed to an average sea level rise of 4.62mm per year between 2013 and 2022, the UN agency said in its his report on the consequences of climate change. This is equivalent to doubling the rate of sea level rise over the decade 1993-2022, leading to a total rise of 10 cm since the early 1990s.

Rising sea levels threaten some coastal cities and the very existence of low-lying countries like Tuvalu, which plans to build a digital version of itself in case it sinks.

“This report shows, once again, that concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to reach record levels – contributing to rising land and sea temperatures, melting ice sheets and glaciers, increasing of sea level and the warming and acidification of the oceans”, says the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, Petri Taallas, in the introduction of the report.

The annual report, released on the eve of Earth Day, also shows that Antarctic sea ice cover was at record lows last June and July. Ocean temperatures were the highest on record, with 58% of their surface affected by sea heat.

Overall, 2022 ranks as the fifth or sixth warmest on record, with the average global temperature 1.15 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average despite the cooling effects attributed to the three-year La Niña climate phenomenon .

Climate scientists have warned that the world could break another record high temperature in 2023 or 2024, fueled by climate change and the return of high temperature conditions caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon.