“Even though several meters of sea level rise are already locked in for many centuries due to the long-term retreat of polar ice sheets, how fast it will happen matters greatly to coastal communities on the frontline of climate change today.”
Read that again. Several meters are already locked in. The fight now is over how fast the water comes, not whether. The fix still needs emissions cuts of 5 percent a year starting now, and nobody at COP31 will commit to that.