Past and future sealevel in the Archipelago of Cabo Verde

In this report I provide an overview of the recent evolution and the state of the art future projections of sea level in Cabo Verde. I use observational data from two tide gauges (Palmeira and Porto Grande) and from satellite altimetry and show that despite local time variability the sea level trend over the satellite altimetry period (1992-2019) in Cabo Verde is around 3 mm/year which is similar to global sea level rise over the same period. However, a sea level drop is found in Porto Grande between 1991 and 1996 which would require further investigations to understand. Sea level projections from SROCC, the latest IPCC report, are used to show that sea level rise in the 21st century in Capo Verde will be just a few centimetres higher than to global mean sea level rise in 2100. This holds for three very different climate scenarios. As a result, sea level in 2100 in Cabo Verde will be between 30 cm and 120 cm higher than during the period 1986-2005 depending on emissions and climate response uncertainties.