Despite a landmark climate deal reached in Paris in 2015, details about emissions reporting and plans to curb global warming are still up in the air, and a series of recent forecasts indicate we may be running out of time to control the damage. But a new round of climate talks now underway in Katowice, Poland, hopes to answer key questions and lay down ground rules, even as the odds are stacked against us. Our UN Correspondent Liling Tan explains.

We're midway into the high-level UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland, and the world has been warned.

ANTONIO GUTERRES UN SECRETARY-GENERAL "We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with climate change. Climate change is running faster then we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late. If we fail the Arctic and the Antarctic will continue to melt. Corals will bleach and then die. The oceans will rise. More people will die from air pollution. Water scarcity will plague a significant proportion of humanity and the cost of disasters will skyrocket."

Several regions are already seeing the impact, including right here in New York.

LILING TAN UNITED NATIONS "Here, the UN overlooks the East River, where we face flooding as land ice melts and warming water expands. Over the past century, New York's sea levels rose by a foot, but scientists project that by the end of THIS century, sea levels could rise by as high as 75 inches."

And the goal to keep global temperatures to well below 2 degree Celsius is drifting out of reach, with one recent study warning that at the current pace, we could see temperatures up by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The UN Environment Programme found that global carbon dioxide emissions rose in 2017 after three years of stagnation.

STEPHANE DUJARRIC UN SPOKESPERSON "The report warns that the current pace of international action is insufficient to meet the Paris targets and concluded that nations must triple their efforts to meet the 2 target, and increase their ambitions five-fold to meet the 1.5 degree Celsius target."

And a landmark UN report anticipates worsening food shortages, wildfires and extreme poverty if global warming isn't kept to a maximum of 1.5-degrees within TWELVE years, much sooner than we thought.

LILING TAN UNITED NATIONS "There has also been a widening gap between science and government policies that ignore the science. The US has pulled out of the Paris Climate deal, while other nations have threatened to follow suit from what's being termed the 'Trump Effect'.

Digging in, US President Donald Trump tweeted this last month: 'Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL Records - Whatever happened to Global Warming.'"

Even countries committed to the Paris deal have been unable to agree on emissions reporting rules and climate strategies, while governments and energy groups still promote fossil fuels like coal.

And while holding climate talks in Poland's coal-mining town of Katowice may at first appear ironic, it serves as a powerful reminder of the political and cultural change needed to turn the tide. Liling Tan, CGTN, at the United Nations.