Millions of homes across Australia could be threatened by rising sea levels, while heat-related deaths are projected to more than double if global temperatures climb beyond 3 degrees Celsius, a government report released on Monday has warned.

A new study reported by a public broadcaster on Monday reveals that New Zealand’s major cities and shorelines are gradually sinking and are at risk of being affected by rising sea levels.

Global sea levels rose 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) in 2024, surpassing the expected 0.17 inches, according to NASA.

At the COP29 climate conference in Baku, ministers and senior officials from Caspian states adopted a crucial declaration aimed at enhancing regional cooperation to tackle the alarming decline in the Caspian Sea’s water levels.

Editor's note: Dr. Aizhan Skakova, expert, member of the Public Chamber under the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The urgent need for knowledge, data, and science to inform risk assessments and decision-making on sea level rise took center stage during a high-level panel discussion at the UN General Assembly's meeting on Sea Level Rise on Wednesday. The event, titled “Knowledge, Data, and Science to Inform Sea Level Rise Risk Assessments and Decision-Making,” featured experts from global organizations, including Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

In the past decade, global sea levels have risen more than twice as fast as previously recorded, Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources and COP29 President-Designate, said on Tuesday.

Record-low levels of sea ice were seen in the Antarctic last year as a result of climate change, scientists confirmed in a report published on Monday, News.Az reports citing Anadolu Agency.