The United Nations warned Monday humanity has less than three years to slash greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half in order to prevent the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. In a major new report, scientists with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change find that without immediate and dramatic action, it will be impossible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the report documented a litany of broken climate promises by nations.

Secretary-General António Guterres: “It is a file of shame, cataloging the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unlivable world. We are on a fast track to climate disaster — major cities underwater, unprecedented heat waves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages, the extinction of a million species of plants and animals. And this is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies.”