The International Energy Agency (IEA) called on governments to shift away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels in the next five years to avert averting climate catastrophes.

In a report, Marlowe Hood of AFP said the IEA issued the warning on its annual World Energy Outlook, noting that the "rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change."

According to the IEA, without further action, the 2.0 C cap on global warming widely accepted by scientists and governments as the ceiling for averting unmanageable climate damage will be "locked in" by power plants, factories and other carbon-emitting sources by 2017.

The IEA proposed actions to reduce carbon-intensive fossil fuel use such as setting a global price on carbon, slashing fossil fuel subsidies, boosting renewable energy and energy efficiency and revising tax codes.

The IEA report outlined two scenarios for future energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases: the "new policies" scenario which incorporates existing government commitments into a projection up to 2035; and the "450 scenario" which lays out a timetable to curb carbon emissions equivalent to the 2.0 C target.

With the current commitments, the CO2 emissions for the next 25 years will amount to three-quarters of the total emitted since 1900, leading to a 3.5 C (6.3 F) average increase in temperature since that date. If no actions are made, emissions would put the world "on an even more dangerous track toward an increase of 6.0 C (10.8 F)," the report says.

According to scientists, a 6 C world would be close to unlivable due to violent extremes of drought, flooding, heatwaves and storms. The average temperature has risen by about 1.0 C (1.8 F) over the last century, and forecasts for warming range from an additional 1.0 C to 5.0 C (9.0 F) by 2100.