Worst polluting countries must make drastic carbon cuts, says Cop26 chief

Alok Sharma says chance to limit worst impacts of climate breakdown still achievable, but retreating fast'

The world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases must produce clear plans to cut their carbon output drastically, the president of vital UN climate talks has urged, after scientists warned there was only a small chance of escaping the worst ravages of climate breakdown.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change set out the starkest warning yet on the widespread and unprecedented" changes to the climate that are unequivocally" the result of human actions. Extreme weather resulting from these changes was already seen around the world and growing worse, in the form of rising temperatures, more frequent and fiercer storms, heatwaves, droughts, floods and sea level rises, according to the biggest assessment of climate science in eight years.