Dhaka: Natural gas will have to be phased out along with coal if the world is to be kept safe from dangerous climate change.

And that seems likely to have to happen far sooner than most official forecasts, according to a new report.

If countries want to reach their Paris Agreement goals of limiting the long-term world temperature rise to 1.5°C, then many of the proposals to increase gas production and distribution will be unnecessary, according to the report of the Climate News Network UNB received from London on Thursday.

The authors also warn that unless countries realise quickly that further investment in gas production is both unnecessary and damaging to the climate, they may lock themselves into emissions that they cannot afford to make.

The report, Foot off the Gas, is published by the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent science-based assessment which tracks countries' emission commitments and actions.

CAT's members are Climate Analytics, Ecofys and NewClimate Institute, with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as a collaborator.

The report says part of the problem is that governments guided by projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) are overestimating the need for natural gas, both to replace coal and to act as emergency back-up when supplies from intermittent renewables falter.

"One example is China, where in 2016 the IEA projected renewables would rise to 7.2 percent of the power supply by 2020 - but by the end of 2016 they had already reached 8 percent. Additionally, India and the Middle East are also seeing renewables rising much faster than mainstream projections," said Niklas Höhne from NewClimate Institute.

"This over-investment in natural gas infrastructure is likely to lead to either emissions overshooting the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C and 2°C goals - or a large number of stranded assets as the shift to cheaper renewables takes place," said Andrzej Ancygier of Climate Analytics.

The report sees a dwindling role for natural gas towards the middle of the century because of increasing competition from renewables that continue to get cheaper.

This is contrary to the official line that gas consumption will continue to rise and is an important "bridging fuel" towards a carbon-free world.

"Natural gas is often perceived as a 'clean' source of energy that complements variable renewable technologies. However, there are persistent issues with fugitive emissions during gas extraction and transport that show that gas is not as 'clean' as often thought," said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics.

"Natural gas will disappear from the power sector in a Paris Agreement-compatible world, where emissions need to be around zero by mid-century."