She added the temporary warming effects would play little role in the overall global warming trend, driven by human activity.

“We know the climate is changing and we are already seeing the impacts of that in all of these parts of the climate system,” she said.

“Humans have already caused the earth to warm by more than 1 degree since the industrial revolution and that trend will continue. But how much the climate warms [depends] on how much greenhouse gas we emit, if we can change the way our society works and move away from our dependency on fossil fuel.

“We do see promising signs; the new government has increased its ambition and commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent this decade. But those measures don’t go far enough in terms of what the science says about limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.”

It comes as research by the CSIRO found that waters off East Antarctica had warmed by about 2 degrees since the first half of the 20th century, with a more rapid warming trend in the past 30 years.

The research also found significant pockets of warmer waters in once deeper and cooler water, which could affect the stability of the ice sheet.

Dr Laura Herraiz-Borreguero, CSIRO scientist and lead author of the study, said that, when and how fast the ice mass melted, was one of the biggest uncertainties in climate modelling.

She added that, previously, east Antarctica had been poorly studied because most of the ice melt had occurred to the west, but the region was still significant because it held a lot of water.

Herraiz-Borreguero’s research found that even if small parts of the east Antarctica ice sheet melted, it could contribute up to 5.1 metres of sea level rises.

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But she remains hopeful that, through global emission reduction efforts, the melting of Antarctica and global warming can be minimised.

“The science community is putting lots of effort in understanding ice sheet processes and what happens when we lose one. Knowing what it means for sea level rise is going to help us adapt to it. It is not too late and we still have time to limit global warming.”

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