Rising sea levels could severely disrupt crude oil shipments and erode energy security in import-dependent countries like China, South Korea and Japan, with many of the world’s biggest terminals vulnerable to flooding, researchers said on Tuesday.

Melting ice and swelling seas caused by rising temperatures could “unleash unstoppable multi-metre sea level rise which will not only sink key oil ports and disrupt global oil trade but also swamp coastal refineries and petrochemical facilities”, the China Water Risk (CWR) think tank warned in a report.

A 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that on current trends, average sea levels could rise by more than a metre by the end of the century, adding that a two-metre rise could not be ruled out.

(www.reuters.com/business/energy/. Adaptado)