Among the report's calculations was that in order to meet the target of no more than a 2°Celsius rise in global temperature by 2030, which all countries that signed the 2015 Paris agreement pledged to do, those countries must act quickly and decisively to cut greenhouse gas emissions by one-quarter. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that even a 1.5-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures would lead to catastrophic results in severe weather, droughts, sea level rise, and coastal flooding. This most recent U.N. report said that in order to keep the temperature rise at 1.5°Celsius, the industrial powerhouses of the world must cut their emissions by a full 50 percent.

The report, which found that emissions were rising again after a brief period of stagnation, issued a stark prediction that at current levels, global temperatures would rise by 3.2°Celsius by the end of the century. This is even as more and more countries pursue renewable energy strategies and carbon emission reduction plans. Those efforts have only served to keep the emissions rise from being higher and are not nearly enough, the U.N. said.

The U.N. report was the latest in a series of recent reviews of the current climate situation. A large review in the U.K. recently found that even at current temperature levels, temperatures would be 5°Celsius hotter and flooding would be more severe in the next 50 years. And in the U.S., the National Climate Assessment issued similar warnings about the near certainty of catastrophic weather but also signaled the economic toll that such events would take on that nation's economy.

Another meeting of world leaders is scheduled for December in Poland. At the COP24 conference, in Katowice, representatives of many of the 190 nations that have signed on to the 2015 Paris Agreement will again attempt to address the problem. A similar meeting in Bangkok in September did not achieve its objectives. In response, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres included in his address to the United Nations General Assembly a clarion call for G-20 leaders to take the lead in combating climate change.