DHAKA: The unrestricted use of fossil fuels must end soon if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.

That is the central message of a stark new report from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC urges that by 2050, most of the world’s electricity must - and can - be produced from low carbon sources.

Fossil fuels, without carbon capture and storage (CCS), should be phased out ‘almost entirely’ by 2100.

The short Synthesis Report was published on Sunday in Copenhagen, after a week of intense debate between scientists and government officials, says the BBC.

The report says the world faces ‘severe, pervasive and irreversible’ impacts without effective action on carbon.

‘It’s very clear from the report that fossil fuels have had their day,’ said Prof Arthur Petersen from UCL and a member of the Dutch government’s team in Copenhagen.

‘Of course it is up to politicians to decide which risks they want to take with climate change, so it is not policy prescriptive in saying that these reductions should take place, but it is absolutely clear that the reductions should take place if you want to limit (temperature increases) to 2C.’

BDST: 1739 HRS, NOV 02, 2014