Increasing temperatures cause heat waves that may lead to forest fires (Representational image)|European Wilderness Society|CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The past eight years were the hottest ever recorded, a new United Nations (UN) report has found, which was published on the opening day of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

The report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”.

“Our planet is on course to reach tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” the UN secretary-general said.