Melting Arctic sea ice is actually increasing the chances of severe winters on the continents of Europe and Asia in the coming decades, according to a Bloomberg report citing Japanese researchers.

In fact, the chances have doubled in the past decade as sea ice melting in the Arctic, Barents, and Kara seas since 2004 as created atmospheric circulations that will bring cold air into Europe and Asia.

The research bolsters a position by United Nations climate scientists, who believe that a warmer average temperate across the world will increase the severity of storms in many places and change the character of seasons in other areas of the world.

Average surface warming has slowed since 2000, but the Arctic has continued to warm quickly over that same period, researchers stated.

About 2,000 envoys commissioned by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to discuss an in-depth assessment of climate change. The purpose of the report is to guide 190 nations meeting in December in Peru as they seek ways to slash greenhouse gas emissions after 2020 and reverse the warming trend.

IPCC said global temperature increases since 1998 are going at just half the pace as they were since 1951, but scientists believe natural variability is to blame for at least some of that difference. Also, studies indicate oceans are absorbing heat.

Although the world has seen a trend of severe winters, researchers say that is unlikely to continue because the results of worldwide warming will outweigh the effects of sea ice by the end of the 21st century.