A higher frequency of unusual weather conditions caused by global warming has melted the Greenland ice sheet by 600 billion tonnes, raising the world’s watermark by 1.5 milimetres – which is about 40 per cent of the total rise in sea level in 2019.

How will this affect Singapore? “Low-lying coastal cities and nations, like Singapore, should be very concerned about the extreme melting in Greenland and Antarctica,” said Professor Benjamin Horton, Chair of the Asian School of the Environment and a Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “If the ice sheets continue to discharge water as much and as quickly as they are doing right now, we can expect to experience severe flooding problems.

“Singapore has taken the right steps to build up its coastal defenses from the rising tides. But these are expensive short-term solutions. The best thing we can do to slow sea-level rise is to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions now,” Prof Horton said.

“Now is the time to act. If we can significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere, we can slow the rising seas.”