Some of the world’s leading and most influential medical publications have joined together to publish an editorial urging the world’s leaders to take urgent action to keep average temperature increases below 1.5C.

It is thought to be the first time that publications such as the British Medical Journal, the Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine have joined forces to issue a stark warning, saying that the Covid-19 crisis will pale into insignificance and that a larger global crisis could already be on the horizon.

The editorial has been published ahead of the UN general assembly and the Cop26 global climate summit which is taking place in Glasgow this autumn.

It read:”Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades.

“The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.

“Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions.

Continuing the comparisons with Covid, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation and one of the co-authors of the editorial said: The COVID-19 pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for the climate crisis.

“The IPCC report shows that every fraction of a degree hotter endangers our health and future. Similarly, every action taken to limit emissions and warming brings us closer to a healthier and safer future.”