Delays would expose the planet to dangerous warming within a lifetime or force even harsher and costlier measures that could cause significant damage to the global economy, WWF International said in a technical report.

"The question for leaders and governments everywhere is how to rein in dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide emissions without stunting development and reducing development and reducing living standards," said WWF Director General James Leape.

"We have a small window of time in which we can plant the seeds of change and that is the next five years. We cannot afford to waste them," he added.

Although the worst consequences can be averted with known technologies, new energy sources and energy-saving measures, economic and political decision-making was still "on a different and dangerous trajectory," the report said

"Scientific warnings continue to mount, yet the debate continues and what passes for vision seems to have great difficulty seeing past the next filling station," it added.

The report advocated six key solutions, including more efficient energy use, the reversal of deforestation, accelerated development of low emission technologies such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage, replacing coal-fired power stations with gas, and carbon capture and sequestration.

Together they could cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 60 to 80 percent by 2050 provided they are implemented on time.

If concerted decisions are made by every country within five years, the measures could have the desired impact "based on the real world constraints on the speed of industrial tranisition," the report said.

The "Climate Solutions: WWF's Vision for 2050" was produced by a taskfroce that includes 100 scinetists and experts.

It focused purely on the issue of what is known about the technologies and physical resources available as well as industry's ability to cope with change.

It did not examine the economic costs, or the exact policies needed to implement the steps.

But the WWF said it was "acutely aware" that steps like ending the dominance of oil and coal, phasing out nuclear power, and rapidly expanding biofuels could cause huge social, environmental and economic upheavals if they are badly managed.

Reports by the UN's Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year underlined that efforts to stabilise the level of greenhouse gases over the next 20 to 30 years will be crucial in the fight against global warming.

The IPCC scientists said carbon dioxide emissions by industry, transport and households were already having an impact on the world's climate and were set to wreak huge damage on human settlement and wildlife this century if they went unchecked.

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