Coastal communities face ‘catastrophic flooding’ from rising sea levels

View of debris from houses destroyed by rising sea levels and coastal erosion associated with climate change two years ago in the community of El Bosque in Nuevo Centla, Tabasco state, Mexico on May 21, 2024. - El Bosque, in the municipality of Centla, is the first settlement victim of climate change in Mexico. Several houses are already submerged under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, although the walls and cisterns of some of them stand out as proof that there used to be a fishing village where some 700 people lived. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP) (AFP)

Surging sea levels are creating “a rising tide of misery” that threaten the future of nearly a billion people that live in low-lying coastal areas, the UN chief has warned, as they become increasingly vulnerable to storm surges, coastal erosion and flooding.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the global mean sea level has risen faster than in any prior century over at least the past 3,000 years.