Britain's greenhouse gas emissions fell last year but only due to milder weather and higher energy prices, government advisors have warned as they call for greater action to address climate change.
The Committee on Climate Change said greenhouse gas emissions fell by 7 per cent last year but only 0.8 per cent of the drop was due to climate change measures.
Emissions should be falling by around 3 per cent a year if the UK is to meet legally binding targets to tackle climate change.
Much greater investment is needed in low carbon energy, including onshore and offshore wind, nuclear and technology which captures the carbon from gas and coal and stores it permanently underground, the committee said.
More progress is needed to insulate cavity and solid walls for homes and very few households are currently switching to renewable heating, while consumer response to electric vehicles remains ''cautious''.
As the committee published its fourth annual report to Government on progress made to tackle climate change, chief executive David Kennedy warned that the need for action was urgent.
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Companies are currently putting in just a third of the annual investment needed for onshore and offshore wind, the pipeline for new nuclear power plants was ''very weak'' and the timeline for demonstrating carbon capture and storage had slipped.
Recent government announcements, including emissions performance rules that would allow gas power stations with unchecked emissions to operate until 2045 and measures to encourage some new gas plants to maintain secure electricity supplies, have raised the possibility of a new dash for gas to keep the lights on.
The first dash for gas in the 1990s drove down the UK's emissions as power generation switched from dirtier coal.
But the committee warned that relying on gas would be more expensive than investing in low carbon technology, such as nuclear power, due to gas costs and the rising ''carbon price'' electricity generators have to pay for their pollution.
And it would make it difficult to meet legally binding targets to cut carbon.
''There should not be a second dash for gas and the Government should say that confidently,'' Mr Kennedy urged.
''There have been mixed messages coming from Government about the role for gas, and they've got to provide the clarity that it's not a sensible thing to do for carbon and it's not a sensible thing to do for security of supply.''
Shale gas, which is now being widely exploited in the US, was not a game changer as it would not significantly drive down gas prices and even at much lower gas prices analysis showed there was no cost advantage over nuclear, he said.
And even if efforts to tackle global climate change were abandoned, it would still make sense to shift to clean power such as wind and nuclear, as oil and gas prices would be very high in a world where demand for fossil fuels was unchecked.
''It's a low regret strategy either because we'll be in a carbon-constrained world, or a resource-constrained world,'' Mr Kennedy said.
But he warned the lead time to get onto the downward emissions path had now elapsed.
''The need for action has become urgent - we've got to move from good intentions to action and we've got to do that very quickly,'' he said.
Electricity market reforms which will introduce long term contracts guaranteeing a steady rate of return for low-carbon power generation to overcome the high capital cost of nuclear power and offshore wind, is the right policy, he said.
But the committee's report said the reforms should have a clear purpose to cut the emissions from power generation to a tenth of what they currently are per unit of electricity by 2030, to give certainty to investors.
There also needs to be more detail on the contracts that will be drawn up clean energy generation and a clear objective to deliver a portfolio of low-carbon technologies.
The report said the programme to fund carbon capture and storage projects with up to £1 billion in support needs to proceed urgently, with schemes selected by the end of the year to get them operating by between 2016 and 2018.
Stronger incentives are needed to encourage households to take up energy efficiency and renewable heat measures, including providing finance to cover the up-front investment costs for technology such as ground source heat pumps.
And the Government must take action to reduce the emissions from vans, outline how it will roll out sustainable travel programmes and reverse its decision to take away company car tax relief for electric vehicles, the report urged.
