Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, are primarily responsible for the climate changes observed in the industrial era, especially over the last six decades. Human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are the only factors that can account for the observed warming over the last century that is driving the observed sea-level rise; there are no credible alternative human or natural explanations supported by the observational evidence.

Previous estimates show that human activities are responsible for about 70% of the observed sea-level rise since 1970, with the percentage approaching 100% as time goes on.