UN chief calls on governments to ban fossil fuel ads

The head of the United Nations says the world's fossil fuel industries should be banned from advertising to help save the world from climate change.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called coal, oil, and gas corporations the "godfathers of climate chaos," who had distorted the truth and deceived the public for decades.

He said just as tobacco advertising was banned because of the threat to health, the same should now apply to fossil fuels.

His remarks were his most damning condemnation yet of the industries responsible for the bulk of global warming. 

They came as new studies showed the rate of warming is increasing and that global heat records have continued to tumble.

Scientists have found that ongoing high emissions of warming gases mean the world is moving closer to breaching the symbolic 1.5 Celsius warming mark on a longer-term basis.

To try to avert this outcome, the UN Secretary General has called for more rapid political action on climate change, and a clampdown on the fossil fuel industry.