In an interview with the Guardian, the UN's Climate Chief Christiana Figueres urged institutions to begin building the foundations of a clean energy economy by scaling up their investments.
Global investment in clean technologies is running at about $300bn a year - but that is nowhere where it needs to be, Figueres said. "From where we are to where we need to be, we need to triple, and we need to do that - over the next five to 10 years would be best - but certainly by 2030," she said.
The International Energy Agency said four years ago it would take $1tn a year in new infrastructure projects by 2030 to make the shift from a coal- and oil-based economy to the cleaner fuels and technologies that would help keep warming below the dangerous threshold of 2C.
But investment has lagged far behind what is needed and Carbon use escalates and the hunt for new reserves continues.
"There is no doubt that most of the fossil fuel reserves we have world-wide will have to stay in the ground" to avoid warming beyond 2C, Figueres said