Study confirms climate change has already increased coastal flood risks 12-fold

Summary

A study published in Nature Climate Change provides direct, observation-based evidence that climate change has already reshaped coastal flood hazards. Extreme sea-level events once expected once every 100 years are now 12 times more likely to occur, with human-driven sea-level rise alone quadrupling the likelihood since the 1960s. At nearly half of the 130 sites analyzed, a 100-year flood event in 1900 now occurs at least once per decade. The findings have major implications for the 680 million people living in low-lying coastal zones and for coastal infrastructure planning.