The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

That's the stark warning from more than 60 of the world's leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.

But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests - leaving that international goal in peril.

Climate change has already worsened many weather extremes - such as the UK's 40C heat in July 2022 - and has rapidly raised global sea levels, threatening coastal communities.

"Things are all moving in the wrong direction," said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.

"We're seeing some unprecedented changes and we're also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well."

These changes "have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions", he added.

The researchers studied more than 600 species of birds and mammals

Ambitious targets to halt the decline in nature may already be slipping out of reach, a study suggests.

Scientists say the effects of climate change and habitat loss on animal populations have been underestimated.

They say bringing back wildlife may take longer than expected and that unless we act now global biodiversity targets will be out of reach.

In December almost 200 countries agreed to halt the decline in nature by the end of the decade.

Catastrophic climate change outcomes, including human extinction, are not being taken seriously enough by scientists, a new study says.

The authors say that the consequences of more extreme warming - still on the cards if no action is taken - are "dangerously underexplored".

They argue that the world needs to start preparing for the possibility of what they term the "climate endgame".

They want UN scientists to investigate the risk of catastrophic change. According to this new analysis, the closest attempts to directly understand or address how climate change could lead to global catastrophe have come from popular science books such as The Uninhabitable Earth and not from mainstream science research.

Australia has suffered a litany of natural disasters in recent years including historic bushfires

Australia's environment is in a shocking state and faces further decline from amplifying threats, according to an anticipated report.

The survey of Australia's ecological systems - conducted every five years - found widespread abrupt changes.

These can be blamed on climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining, it said.

The threats are not being adequately managed - meaning they are on track to cause more problems.