PARIS: A landmark UN report warning of the growing peril to the planet posed by climate change shows that the world has just a decade to move away from a civilisation based on fossil fuels, France said today.

“The challenge is immense because it involves emerging within a decade from a civilisation that has been based on fossil fuels for several centuries,” French environment minister Barbara Pompili said in a statement.

The French government statement described as “alarming” the report, which said global warming will see Earth’s average temperature reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels around 2030, a decade earlier than projected only three years ago.

Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the report “rightly emphasises, once again, the real urgency to take all the necessary measures to fully implement the Paris accord (on climate change), which is the compass for all of us”.