London (CNN Business) The oil and gas industry needs to work harder and faster to tackle the climate crisis if it wants to remain profitable, a leading energy group says.

Oil and gas companies should do much more to respond to the threat of climate change, and cannot rely on fossil fuels to keep driving returns, the International Energy Agency said in a report Monday.

Since 2015, the industry has directed less than 1% of its annual capital expenditure towards low-carbon businesses, according to the report.

Some companies have spent up to 5% but "there are few signs of the large-scale change in capital allocation needed to put the world on a more sustainable path," it said.

"No energy company will be unaffected by clean energy transitions," the International Energy Agency's executive director, Fatih Birol said in a statement. "Every part of the industry needs to consider how to respond. Doing nothing is simply not an option," he said.

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