'Urgent threat' dominates talks at UN climate summit in Poland

The smaller, poorer nations that will bare devastating brunt of planetary warming are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement

With the direst environmental warnings yet still ringing in their ears, nations gathered in Poland on Sunday for a UN summit aimed at heading off the “urgent threat” of runaway climate change.

The UN talks come at a crucial juncture in mankind's response to planetary warming. The smaller, poorer nations that will bare its devastating brunt are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

In Paris three years ago, countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C