It’s not looking good for Copenhagen.
If emissions continue to grow at the same rate as they have over the past few years then Copenhagen can expect to see sea levels rise 161 centimeters by 2100. You’d think this rise would be identical across the globe, but that isn’t the case. The reasons as to why sea levels won’t rise identically across the world are complicated, and you can read about them on Science Nordic, but the point is that Copenhagen will be one of the places most impacted by sea level rises in the world.
It takes a great deal of effort to keep the country from flooding. Copenhagen has installed pocket parks to try and absorb rainfall over the past few years and to redirect water through these pocket parks to the harbour. Additionally, people have been encouraged to get rid of hard materials like concrete in their gardens and to replace them with grass, which absorbs water more readily.
However, coastal regions will face rising sea levels over the next few years and it will be up to Denmark to keep those flood defenses strong, or we will see parts of Copenhagen underwater by 2030, according to this interactive map. The map uses ‘datasets for elevation and tides’ from across the globe to show how rising tides will impact the world, and NASA notes that in the last 20 years alone the sea has risen by 2 inches.
How quickly sea levels will rise in the future is dependent on how we treat the Earth in the coming years. The Paris Agreement wants countries to limit global warming, but not every country in the world is committed to this agreement. So, as the Earth warms the sea warms too, melting ice which then flows into the sea and increases sea levels. How Denmark will handle this enormous challenge is yet to be seen.