SWATHES of Inverclyde's coastline could be submerged under water in the next 30 years because of global warming, according to a new environmental report.

The latest study by US-based campaign group Climate Central predicts that thousands of homes, businesses and public spaces close to the waterfront are 'at risk' of large-scale flooding by 2050.

According to an interactive map produced as part of the investigation, almost all of Inverclyde's coastline is under threat because of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

Locations such as Battery Park in Greenock, the Cardwell Bay area of Gourock and Coronation Park in Port Glasgow are all listed in the danger zone.

Other parts of the district, including Custom House Way right along to Cartsburn Roundabout, the Port retail park, Gourock promenade and Inverkip and Wemyss Bay village centres, are also deemed 'at risk'.

The report says: "Sea level rise is one of the best known of climate change's many dangers. "As humanity pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the planet warms. "And as it does so, ice sheets and glaciers melt and warming sea water expands, increasing the volume of the world's oceans. "The consequences range from near-term increases in coastal flooding that can damage infrastructure and crops to the permanent displacement of coastal communities."

Climate Central is an independent organisation made up of leading scientists and journalists who research and report on 'the facts about our changing climate and its impact on the public'.

Experts predict that sea levels will rise by between two and seven feet during the course of the 21st century.

But the authors of the report - entitled 'Flooded Future: Global vulnerability to sea level rise worse than previously understood' - say steps steps can and have been taken to mitigate the impact.

They said: "Based on sea level projections for 2050, land currently home to 300 million people will fall below the elevation of an average annual coastal flood.

"By 2100, land now home to 200m people could sit permanently below the high tide line.

"Adaptive measures such as construction of levees and other defences or relocation to higher ground could lessen these threats.

"In fact, roughly 110m people currently live on land below high tide line. "This population is almost certainly protected to some degree by existing coastal defences, which may or may not be adequate for future sea levels."