The latest Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE) reports that ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica has increased fivefold since the 1990s, and now accounts for a quarter of sea-level rise. The assessment states that between 1992 and 2020, the polar ice sheets lost 7560 billion tonnes of ice – equivalent to an ice cube measuring 20 km each side.

Melting of the polar ice sheets has caused a 21 mm rise in global sea level since 1992. Ice loss from Greenland is responsible for almost two-thirds (13.5 mm) of this rise, and ice loss from Antarctica is responsible for the other third (7.4 mm).

The polar ice sheets have together lost ice in every year of the satellite record, and the seven highest melting years have occurred in the last decade.

Read full story: Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica hits new record