Ice2sea has been set the task of providing input to the up-coming Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

This report is due to be finalised in late-2012, with publication planned for early-2013.

In brief, ice2sea will provide the following elements that may be used to inform the report:

1. Improved understanding of the key processes that control how  glacial systems respond to atmospheric and oceanic climate change

2. New methodologies for the prediction of global sea-level rise based on improved models of the response of ice sheets and mountain glacier to climate change.

3. Updated assessments of the likely contribution of the cryosphere to sea-level rise over the next 200 years, based on two emissions scenarios.

4. A collective view of the likelihood of catastrophic sea-level rise, due collapse of either Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets.

5. A clearer view of where the uncertainties in predicting future sea-level rise arise, and how these may be reduced in future.