British broadcaster and environmentalist David Attenborough on Monday urged world leaders meeting in Poland to agree to ways to limit global warming in order to tackle "our greatest threat in thousands of years."
Known for countless nature films, Attenborough has gained prominence recently with his "Blue Planet II" series, which highlighted the devastating effect of pollution on the oceans.
"Leaders of the world, you must lead," said the naturalist, given a "people's seat" at the two-week UN climate conference in the Polish coal city of Katowice, alongside two dozen heads of state and government.
"The continuation of our civilizations and the natural world upon which we depend is in your hands," he said.
The world is currently on course to overshoot by far 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.
The Katowice talks are billed as the most important UN conference since Paris, coming ahead of an end-of-year deadline to agree on a "rule book" enforcing action.
Yet political and UN leaders have been struggling to inject urgency into two weeks of haggling on how to move on from fossil fuels to give practical effect to the Paris accord.
Representatives of some of the most powerful countries and biggest polluters were conspicuous by their absence, and the United States is quitting the UN climate process.
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