The world has made almost no progress towards reducing the carbon content of its energy supplies in the last 20 years, despite pumping trillions of dollars of investment into renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

In its third annual report tracking the progress of clean energy technology, the IEA, which advises rich industrialized countries on energy policy, paints a bleak picture of global efforts to reduce emissions of gases that scientists say are causing climate change.

"The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA, said in a press statement. "We cannot afford another 20 years of listlessness. We need a rapid expansion in low-carbon energy technologies if we are to avoid a potentially catastrophic warming of the planet, but we must also accelerate the shift away from dirtier fossil fuels."

The report by the IEA comes just a day after the survival of the world's flagship plan to tackle global warming, the European Union's carbon dioxide Emissions Trading System, was put in doubt after a proposal to support the carbon market was rejected by the European Parliament.

According to the IEA, carbon dioxide emissions from each unit of energy consumed have fallen by less than 1% since 1990, largely due to coal's continued dominance as the fuel of electricity generation. Coal-fired power rose by an estimated 6% between 2010 and 2012, driven by growth in emerging economies, and represents, "a fundamental threat to a low-carbon future," the IEA said.

"The picture is as clear as it is disturbing: the carbon intensity of the global energy supply has barely changed in 20 years, despite successful efforts in deploying renewable energy," the IEA said in the annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting, which brings together countries responsible for 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions.

There is little happening to mitigate the environmental impact of the continued dominance of coal in power generation, said the IEA. Many new coal-fired power plants continue to use inefficient technologies, offsetting measures to close some older and dirtier plants, it said. Projects to develop the technology that would allow power plant carbon emissions to be captured and stored, preventing them from contributing to global warming, have made little progress, it added.

Urgent action is needed to boost the number of carbon capture and storage projects under development if the world is to succeed in capping the rise in the global average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius in the long term, the IEA said.

Scientists have said that a global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius could have dramatic consequences for the environment, including increasing the frequency of extreme weather events with severe social and economic consequences.

To help the transition to a cleaner global energy system, the IEA urged countries to implement clear regulations that encourage the switch to cleaner fuels and infrastructure, and at least triple research funding, the IEA said.

However in the European Union, one of the world's keenest promoters of renewable energy, low-carbon policy suffered a significant setback Tuesday as lawmakers rejected a proposal to delay the auction of permits to emit carbon dioxide.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, had proposed the delay in order to prop up the price of emissions allowances, which had fallen too low to stimulate clean energy investment because of an oversupply.

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