The resulting warming of the earth could cause the sea level to rise by more than two metres for each additional celsius degree of warmth, an international research team in Innsbruck, Austria, said on Monday.

The effects of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere as a result of burning of fossil fuels will long continue to have an impact on the global climate, the team said in a research paper published in scientific journal "PNAS".

Most of this would result in the melting of the large ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica over the next 2000 years.

In 20th century the expansion of warm water and the melting of mountain glaciers caused the sea level to rise by about 20 centimeters, something the team expects to accelerate in the distant future.

This is because the carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for an "awfully long time," said lead author of the study Anders Levermann, according to an APA report.

This in turn causes the warming effect to occur due to the presence of the emissions remains for a correspondingly long amount of time.

Part of the problem is that once the ice sheets begin to melt it can no longer be reversed unless the temperature falls, he added. The team also said there should be longer-term discussions over what is built close to coastal areas as a measure of countering the rising sea level.

Source: Xinhuanet