Analysis of the effects of Kyoto Protocol on Pacific island countries : Part I - identification of latent sea-level rise within the climate system at 1995 and 2020. Part II - regional climate change scenarious and risk assessment methods

Abstract

Latent sea-level rise is defined here as the sea-level rise ultimately likely to occur due to emissions of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, i.e. if all anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases were to cease at a particular time, various global systems would continue to change in response to the gases remaining in the atmosphere until equilibrium was reached. Those systems include the atmosphere: the cryosphere, comprising snowfields,tundra soils, glaciers and ice-caps: the biosphere,including both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems: and the hydrosphere, incorporating the oceans and terrestrial waters.