Newspapers in 45 countries have issued world leaders gathering in Copenhagen with a stark choice - act decisively to save humanity from a "profound emergency" or allow climate change to "ravage our planet".
Fifty-six newspapers published a common editorial warning that failure to reach a "fair and effective" deal at the crucial UN talks will spell disaster for future generations.
Newspapers across the world make a plea on climate change
Most of the newspapers have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front pages, according to The Guardian which drafted the piece during more than a month of consultations with editors ahead of the summit.
The editorial - to be published in 20 languages including Chinese, Arabic and Russian in newspapers around the world ranging from France's Le Monde to the Cambodia Daily and The Miami Herald - begins: "Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.
"Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security."
It continues: "Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days.
"We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest failure of modern politics.
"This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone."
The facts behind climate change are clear, it said. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C which will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next five to 10 years.
The editorial mentions the recent row over leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit which climate sceptics allege show scientists manipulating data to support a theory of man-made global warming. But while acknowledging that the controversy has "muddied the waters", it said it ultimately failed to dent the mass of climate change evidence.
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