Roman Catholic cardinals, patriarchs and bishops have issued an unprecedented appeal to the UN to produce a "truly transformational" agreement to tackle climate change when it meets at the long awaited conference in Paris.

The appeal, signed in the Vatican, contains a 10-point document based on Pope Francis' landmark encyclical released last June, which demanded urgent action to save the planet from environmental ruin.

"Reliable scientific evidence" suggests global warming is the result of "unrestrained human activity", current models of progress and development and excessive reliance on fossil fuels, the document said.

"The Pope and Catholic Bishops from five continents, sensitive to the damage caused, appeal for a drastic reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases."

"Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone," said the appeal.

Climate change sceptics argue that man's role in global warming has not been conclusively proved.

The signatories represent all national or regional bishops' conferences, making it the first time in living memory that a Catholic appeal to world leaders was totally global, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, told a news conference.

"It is important that there be a variety of non-state activists in (the climate talks) and the Church can be a very important player," said Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The conference, which will meet in Paris from 30 November to 11 December, will try to seal a global agreement on combating global warming. Disputes over how to finance poorer nations have hampered the negotiations between almost 200 countries.

The Catholic Church's role at the forefront of the climate change debate has drawn criticism from some conservatives, including the US Republican candidate Jeb Bush.

Additional reporting from Reuters.