The sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released overnight, was used by United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres as evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas was "choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk".
"This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels before they destroy our planet," he said.
"The viability of our societies depends on leaders from government, business and civil society uniting behind policies, actions and investments that will limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius."
While climate change sceptics have been quick to claim that the world's climate system is a natural, cyclical phenomenon, the report shows in stark terms how quickly the planet has heated since pre-industrial times.
CO2 concentration is at its highest level in at least 2 million years; sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 3000 years; Arctic sea ice is at its lowest level in 1000 years and glaciers are retreating at their fastest level in 2000 years.
The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for around 1.1C of warming - in Australia the average temperature has already risen by 1.4C.
It finds that the world is likely to hit 1.5C in global temperature rises by the 2030s, but in its most optimistic scenario this could be brought down over the space of a several years so long as concerted efforts were made to reduce emissions and commit to massive reforestation programs.
Source: IPCC
The UK prime minister Boris Johnson, whose country is hosting the COP26 climate talks in November, urged world leaders to ramp up their efforts to reduce emissions.
"I hope today's IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit," he said in a statement overnight.
Australia's energy and emission reduction minister Angus Taylor said Australia was committed to reaching net-zero "as soon as possible, preferably by 2050."
The Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, which has peppered the oil and gas industry with shareholder resolutions demanding more stringent emission reduction policies be enacted by company management, said Australian companies can no longer drag their heels on the climate crisis.
"Investors in these companies must take action: demand an end to all fossil fuel expansion and escalate when companies fail to act," ACCR climate director Dan Gocher said.
"It's time to vote against the re-election of obstructive directors, link remuneration to emissions targets and end the greenwashing."
The University of Sydney released a statement calling on the Australian government to put a short-lived price on carbon, saying it is an "essential tool" to reduce emissions.
School of Economics associate professor Tiho Ancev said an initial, snap tax and trade system would provide a signal to emitters about the adequacy of their investment in abatement technology, creating greater overall efficiency and lower permit prices.
Numerous countries have implemented varying forms of carbon trading schemes in place, the researchers note it is "currently unpalatable to most Australians".
"COVID-19 pandemic is a small challenge compared to climate change, and if we are going to address it to avoid an even bigger future crises, we can't go at it without having a carbon price," professor Ancev said.
However, Taylor reiterated the government's stance that it was reducing emissions by transforming industries "not through taxes that destroy them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create".
World Resources Institute climate and economics director Helen Mountford told Bloomberg the report highlighted the world's opportunity to avoid even more catastrophic impacts has an expiration date.
"The report implies that this decade is truly our last chance to take the actions necessary to limit temperature rise to 1.5C," she said.
"If we collectively fail to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions in the 2020s, that goal will slip out of reach."
According to Climate Action Tracker, current policies presently in place around the world would result in around 2.9C of warming above pre-industrial levels.
