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Sea Level Rise, Climate Justice, and the Paris Agreement
  • Shaina Sadai,
  • Regine Spector,
  • Robert Deconto
Shaina Sadai
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Regine Spector
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Robert Deconto
Univ Massachusetts
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Abstract

In 2015, at the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, France, countries agreed to limit the global mean surface temperature (GMST) increase to 2°C above preindustrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. However, risks from sea level rise are not well encapsulated by temperature targets. Near term emissions will dictate long term sea level rise responses, but the tendency for policy and negotiations to concentrate on the year 2100 can limit our understanding of intergenerational justice concerns arising from this commitment. Here we present an analysis of the long term spatial variability of sea level rise, and an interdisciplinary review of associated justice considerations from across a wide range of literatures. We center the positioning of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to show that AOSIS nations are disproportionately impacted by sea level rise, and that ice sheet instabilities, which could dominate the long term trend in sea level, are associated with feedbacks which can potentially exacerbate climate justice implications.
Dec 2022Published in Earth's Future volume 10 issue 12. 10.1029/2022EF002940