Balearics warned sea level forecast to rise by up to one metre

The chief researcher, Ignacio Losada from the University of Cantabria, explained at a presentation yesterday that the Canaries will be the most affected region of Spain; sea levels could rise by as much as one metre.

In the case of the Canaries, the “worrying” forecast is that the region will be affected by the worst of the four scenarios envisaged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is RCP 8.5 - Representative Concentration Pathway, the greenhouse gas concentration.

Losada added that the most significant changes in temperature and wave swells will be in the Canaries, on the Cantabrian coast, in the east of Spain and in the Balearics. Like the Canaries, the Balearic Islands are a “worrying” region, where the temperature could rise four degrees by the final quarter of the century.

The short-term rise in sea level - to 2045 - is forecast to be by up to 30 centimetres, but towards the end of the century, average sea temperatures will have increased five degrees and produce the much greater rises in sea level.

The Balearics would be “harmed”, and the Canaries more so.