5 years left for preventing disasters

Dangerous climate change will be essentially irreversible within a little over five years, the International Energy Agency said in an annual report urging governments to do what they can to prevent this outcome.

To prevent long-term average global temperatures rising more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels—seen as the maximum possible increase without serious climate disruption—immediate, drastic changes to energy and industrial policies are needed, the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook.

The report also highlights the challenge posed by the rapidly rising use in emerging economies of the fossil fuels, particularly coal, that many scientists believe are a key contributor to climate change.

"The door to reach two degrees is about to close. In 2017 it will be closed forever," Fatih Birol, IEA chief economist, said in an interview, the Wall Street Journal reports.