First-of-Its-Kind Study Finds Sea Level Rise Has Not Accelerated Due to Climate Change

By Brittany Bernstein, National Review, September 4, 2025 - A new first-of-its-kind study by Dutch researchers finds no evidence of a global acceleration in sea level rise due to climate change.

The peer-reviewed paper, “A Global Perspective on Local Sea Level Changes,” published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering last month is the first study to be based on local data taken from coastal sites around the world, rather than on models based on extrapolations.

The study, which was conducted as an analysis of more than 200 tide gauge stations worldwide, cuts against the longstanding belief among climate scientists that climate change is leading to rapidly accelerating sea level rise.

The research, conducted by Dutch researchers Hessel Voortman and Rob de Vos, found that the average rate of sea level rise in 2020 is only around 1.5 mm-per-year, or 15 cm-per-century.

“This is significantly lower than the 3 to 4 mm/year often reported by climate scientists in scientific literature and the media,” Voortman told independent journalist Michael Shellenberger.

Voortman told Shellenberger he could not believe that no researcher who had come before him had performed an analysis of real-world local data.

“It is crazy that it had not been done,” said Voortman. “I started doing this research in 2021 by doing the literature review. ‘Who has done the comparison of the projections with the observations?’ And there were none.”

... Meanwhile, the paper finds the U.N. climate panel IPCC models, which are relied upon by scientists the world over, “significantly overestimate local sea level rise in 2020.” ....  despite the groundbreaking findings of his research, Voortman “does not deny the reality of climate change, sea level rise, or the need for models,” according to Shellenberger’s report. (link)

Rod's Comment: I do not deny the reality of climate chance. However, the many missed deadlines and end-is-near hysteria lead me to question if the problem of climate change is not overstated. I question if the alarmism is justified. I do not know if the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is a respected scientific journal are not. I am just throwing this out there because it interests me; I am reaching no conclusions. More than likely, further studies will contradict or confirm this study. 

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