Sir David Attenborough tells UN climate change summit 'collapse of civilisation is on the horizon'

Bonnie Christian3 December 2018

Sir David Attenborough has told the UN's climate change summit that the "collapse of civilisation" and "extinct of the natural world" is on the horizon.

In a powerful address at the two-week climate change conference in the Polish city of Katowice, the Dynasties narrator said: "Time is running out."

Mr Attenborough was given a newly established “People’s seat” at the conference alongside two dozen heads of state and government.

The Katowice talks are billed as the most important UN conference since Paris, coming ahead of an end-of-year deadline to agree a "rule book" on enforcing action.

The world is currently on course to far overshoot the limits for global warming agreed in the landmark 2015 Paris accord on climate change, intended to prevent more extreme weather, rising sea levels and the loss of plant and animal species.

“If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon,” Sir David said in his address.

“Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change.”

Sir David Attenborough urged leaders to at the UN climate change summit to take action as 'collapse of civilisation is on the horizon'
Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP

A series of reports in the run-up to the Katowice conference have made clear the widening gap between high-level rhetoric and actual work to cut emissions, which have continued to rise.

Sir David showed a video compilation of messages from people around the world with a message for the leaders, gathered over two weeks.

“Their message is clear: time is running out," he said.

“The continuation of our civilisations and the natural world upon which we depend is in your hands."

Mr Attenborough also announced the launch of a new ActNow bot aimed at helping people discover simple everyday actions they can take to reduce their impact on the environment.

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