UN warns: Fossil fuels 'should be phased out by 2100'

Britain has to work with the rest of the world in tackling climate change, Energy Secretary Ed Davey told ITV News, after a major report highlighted the "severe risks" of rising temperatures.

Mr Davey said: "It shows how urgently we have to act. It needs far greater political will, even in the UK from some political parties, but it needs that political will to be shown around the world".

The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group, which represents businesses ranging from BT to Thames Water, Shell, EDF and Unilever, called on governments to set ambitious global climate targets.

Philippe Joubert, chairman of The Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group, said:

Governments need to pay attention and phase out coal and oil now or end up doing it later at a much higher cost, Greenpeace's head of international climate politics has said, after a major report highlighted risk of climate change.

Climate change is happening, it is almost entirely man's fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the UN's panel on climate science has said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was at the news conference, stressed that "if we act now, immediately and decisively we have the means to build better and more sustainable world.

He later said: "Inaction of climate action will cost much, much more. This climate action and economic growth are two sides of just one coin".

We must act on climate change now, the Energy Secretary has said, after the publication of a major report on climate change.

Ed Davey, said: "It sends a clear message that should be heard across the world - we must act on climate change now.

"It's now up to the politicians - we must safeguard the world for future generations by striking a new climate deal in Paris next year."

The scientific case for prioritising action on climate change was clearer than ever, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told a conference, after a new UN report was published.

• Read: UN report: Fossil fuels 'should be phased out by 2100'

Power generated from fossil fuels should be phased out completely by 2100 a new report has warned.

The United Nations climate body published the final report of its latest assessment on the science of climate change, drawing together three studies published in the past year.

The report comes as efforts build towards securing a new global treaty on climate change, which it is hoped can be agreed in Paris at the end of next year, and it said that international co-operation was "critical" for effective efforts to tackle the problem.