GENEVA: The world is speeding towards a climate catastrophe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday, urging rapid progress in talks to cut emissions and tackle global warming.

"Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss," the UN secretary general said in a speech to the World Climate Conference.

Ban, who this week visited the Arctic to witness first hand the changes wrought by global warming, warned that many of the "more distant scenarios" predicted by scientists were "happening now."

"Scientists have been accused for years of scaremongering. But the real scaremongers are those who say we cannot afford climate action -- that it will hold back economic growth," he said. "They are wrong. Climate change could spell widespread disaster," Ban warned.

The UN leader pinned his hopes of a breakthrough on a summit of world leaders in New York on September 22 to discuss climate change. LINK