Humanity is on thin ice: UN report says 'urgent' action is needed to combat climate change

The United Nations called for urgent actions to counter human-caused climate change, to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report on Monday.

"Without urgent, effective, and equitable mitigation and adaptation actions, climate change increasingly threatens ecosystems, biodiversity, and the livelihoods, health and wellbeing of current and future generations," according to the report, released on Monday in Interlaken, Switzerland.

"The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts for thousands of years. Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health," the report said.

"Humanity is on thin ice - and that ice is melting fast. Our world needs climate action on all fronts everything, everywhere, all at once," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

Calling for action on the climate crisis, Guterres said that humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years.

He added that the rate of temperature rise in the last half-century is the highest in 2,000 years, and the concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least two million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.

"Today's IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity. As it shows, the 1.5-degree limit is achievable. But it will take a quantum leap in climate action," he added.

"I have proposed to the G20 a Climate Solidarity Pact - in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries mobilise financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to keep 1.5 degrees alive," he added.

In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C. Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.