"Delaying action to address climate change will increase the environmental and societal consequences as well as the costs. The longer we wait to tackle climate change, the harder and more expensive the task will be."

"Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in species' ranges, and more," the board stated.

"The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is now."

"These events are early warning signs of even more devastating damage to come, some of which will be irreversible," warned the board.