'We are teetering on a planetary tightrope': Cut emissions in half right now to prevent climate catastrophe, UN warns

Aftermath of a wildfire in Brasil's Pantanal wetland with smoke rising into the sky. The ground is scorched and the trees burnt black.

Global temperatures will soar to 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by 2100 if governments don't set more ambitious climate targets, a new United Nations (U.N.) report warns.

Warming on this scale is more than twice the 1.5 C (2.7 F) target outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement — a legally binding treaty on climate change adopted by 196 countries — and would plunge the world headlong into climate disaster.