Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier and sea-level rise – Results from the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) [Environment Audit Committee call for evidence]

Executive Summary: Change to Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, sometimes referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier”, over the coming decades and centuries will have profound implications for global sea-level rise and coastal communities around the world. Over the past six years, our research on the glacier has unveiled a complex and rapidly changing environment. Thwaites Glacier’s retreat has accelerated considerably over the past 40 years. Although a full collapse is unlikely to occur in the next few decades, our findings indicate it is set to retreat further, and faster, through the 21st and 22nd centuries, potentially leading to a general collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the 23rd. Immediate and sustained climate change mitigation (decarbonisation) offers the best hope of delaying this ice loss and avoiding initiation of similar unstable retreat in marine-based sectors of East Antarctica.

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