A summary of the evidence of the effects of climate change:

1.1 degrees

In 2016, Earth’s average surface temperature hit a record level for the third consecutive year since records began in 1880. The global average temperature was about 1.1 degree Celsius (1.98 Fahrenheit) higher than the pre-industrial era. This is when mankind’s mass burning of coal, and later oil and gas, started hiking levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Melting ice

Arctic summer sea ice shrank to 4.14 million square kilometres (1.6 million square miles) in 2016 — the second-lowest after 2012, when it reached 3.39 million km2.

The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer as early as 2030. In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6C to 7C higher than the long-term average. On the other extreme of the world, Antarctica, sea ice last year hit its lowest extent ever recorded by satellites.

400ppm

The atmospheric concentrations of the three most potent greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) — all hit new highs in 2016. For the first time on record, in 2015, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere averaged 400 parts per million (ppm).

70mm

Sea level rise, caused when ice melts and warmer water expands, appears to be accelerating, according to the latest data. The average ocean level was 70 millimetres (2.75 inches) higher in 2015 than in 1993, having risen as much as 30 per cent faster in the 10 years to 2015 than in the previous decade.

Extreme events

The WMO says there are demonstrable links between man-made climate change and some extreme events, especially heatwaves.

The number of climate-related extreme events - droughts, forest fires, floods, major storm surges - has doubled since 1990, research has shown.

The intensity of typhoons battering China, Taiwan, Japan and the Korean Peninsula since 1980, for example, has increased by 12 to 15 percent.

Natural disasters drive about 26 million people into poverty every year, says the World Bank, and cause annual losses of about $520 million (463 million euros).

1,688 species

Of the 8,688 species of animals and plants listed as “threatened” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, 19 percent - 1,688 species - have been negatively affected by climate change.

Scientists warn that parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may never recover from an unprecedented second straight year of bleaching.