“We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said at the opening of the COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt.

“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

The World Health Organization (WHO)  said COP27 is especially critical for people’s health across the globe.

“Governments must demonstrate far stronger political will and faster action in implementing the legally binding global Paris Agreement on climate change,” it  said.

WHO said it has “long sounded the alarm, but action has been dangerously inconsistent and far too slow” on climate change.

WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, said the world had “witnessed an escalation of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, all of which have impacted the health of our people”.

Europe, he said, had just experienced its hottest summer and hottest August on record, with devastating wildfires and elevated pollution that had “killed many people, displaced many more, and destroyed large swaths of land for several years to come”.

“It is estimated that at least 15,000 people died (in Europe) specifically due to the heat in 2022.”