At what temperature would melting become irreversible?

December 2023

One of the biggest contributors to the increasing speed of sea level rise of 3.4 millimetres a year is the Greenland ice cap, which is 3 kilometres thick and has the potential to raise sea levels by 7 metres if it all melted. Scientists have been working out at what temperature Greenland’s melting would become irreversible. The threshold, according to a new study presented in Nature, is between 1.7°C and 2.3°C above pre-industrial levels. As current projections predict that global temperatures are set to rise by up to 3°C this century, the world is perilously close to the tipping point. Against that, the researchers point out that by the time we would get back down to 1.5°C, sea levels would already be 2 or 3 metres higher than now.

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At what temperature would melting become irreversible?

One of the biggest contributors to the increasing speed of sea level rise of 3.4 millimetres a year is the Greenland ice cap

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