'Every second counts': Global reactions to UN climate report

BERLIN (AP) — A panel of scientists convened by the United Nations has published a report on the impacts that climate change has had, is having and will have on the planet, including on the natural world and human civilization. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that nearly half the world's population already faces significant risk from global warming.

Its findings have prompted strong reaction from officials, scientists and climate activists, and calls for governments to step up ahead of this year's U.N. climate conference, known as COP27.

Here are some of the comments following the release of the report.

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“Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change. Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a frog march to destruction – now. The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal. The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home. — Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary-General.

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“This IPCC report is a fire alarm for the planet. We all know we are in a climate crisis, but this is a wake-up call that we’re facing an adaptation crisis too. ... The rich, polluting, global north has changed the planet through fossil fuel burning and is now refusing to help those suffering the effects.” — Mohamed Adow, director of climate think tank Power Shift Africa.

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“The consequence of inaction will be catastrophic. You cannot read this report and believe anything otherwise. With an estimated 3.3 billion people, at least, highly vulnerable to climate change, nothing less than the most extreme measures to cut emissions and...