UN report warns more vicious floods, heatwaves, worsening droughts and rise in sea levels

The UN report on climate warned that global warming is on track to hit 1.5 degrees Celsius around 2030.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) said 1.5 Celcius warming threshold would be surpassed by 2050 even if fossil fuels wereaggressively taken off.

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"It has been clear for decades that the Earth's climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed," Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 1 co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte said.

The report said heatwaves, rainfall and droughts are "unprecedented in the observational record" as the climate body warnedextreme weather would sweepthe world.

"Climate report must be death knell for fossil fuels," the UN chief Guterres said.

The UN report said rising sea levels and the melting of Earth's frozen spaces are now "irreversible for centuries or millenia".

Nearly 1 billion people worldwide could swelter in more frequent life-threatening heat waves, the report said, adding, hundreds of millions more would struggle for water because of severe droughts with some animal and plant species becoming extent.

"The alarm bells are deafeningand the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk," said Guterres.

Coral reefs, which sustain fisheries for large swaths of the globe, will suffer more frequent mass die-offs, the report warned.

The report said that if nations fail in their efforts, global average temperatures will keep rising potentially passing 2 degrees, 3 degrees or even 4 degrees Celsius compared with the preindustrial era.

The UK said the report was "a stark warning... that human activity is damaging the planet at an alarming rate".

(With inputs from Agencies)