A new report from the UN has warned that the impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible".

Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world, the BBC reported.

Members of the UN's climate panel say it provides overwhelming evidence of the scale of these effects.

Natural systems now bear the brunt, but a growing impact on humans is feared.

Our health, homes, food and safety are all likely to be threatened by rising temperatures, the summary says.

This is the second of a series from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due out this year that outlines the causes, effects and solutions to global warming.

This latest Summary for Policymakers document highlights the fact that the amount of scientific evidence on the impacts of warming has almost doubled since the last report in 2007.

Be it the melting of glaciers or warming of permafrost, the summary highlights the fact that on all continents and across the oceans, changes in the climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems in recent decades.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri told journalists at a news conference in Yokohama that nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.