I was able to avoid the whole thing but basically had to plan it from the very beginning.
Please note I was playing a large map, King difficulty, with Rome, religion and science victories disabled, and with the latest GS update.
Also with some mods but not any that alter what is relevant for us.
So, this is the strategy I used. I tried to:
1) Control as much territory in the early game as possible through military expansion in order to optimize outputs (production, science, faith) but also minimize the potential of other Civs to become developed and start polluting. (Basically, I tried keeping them in the dark and making it difficult for them to develop, while also developing very fast.)
2) Use the territory you gain (this had to be at least 10 cities approx. in my case) to maximize: science, production, culture. Use science to research anything that maximizes production. Build industrial districts in as many cities as possible.
3) Exploit coal and oil, but avoid modernizing the military past the renaissance/early industrial units, and keep a large force if necessary (just don't update further than Muskets, Frigates, and the like; remember the other civs will still have lesser technology).
4) Opt for hydro, solar, wind, geothermal energy, and build nuclear plants. Use extra production for culture buildings. Religion can play a major part in order to make Great People part of this production/science/culture hogging strategy.
5) Opt for the Synthetic Technocracy government and try to reach "Climate Change Mitigation" as soon as possible. Start the carbon emission reduction project in many cities (Remember that Synthetic Tech. gives you power in all cities and that many cities will have industrial districts. I used between 10-30 cities with a production yield of 40-100 approx. depending on the need).
Believe it or not I was 4 turns away from the first polar ice melt when the projection halted for many turns, then the number started going down.
However, it was a constant struggle and with every new civ that became dependent on fossil fuels the intensity at which I used the project was even higher. Also, I continued pushing for expansion forcing my neighbors into rebellion using Rock Bands, then seizing more cities, decommissioning coal and oil plants and repeating the process there. Again, religion here plays a huge part since you need those faith yields for this Rock Bands. It is very useful to get the Cultural Hegemony future civics which allows you to pick which promotion you want for your band. Use the "indie" promotion to make cities lose loyalty. Repeat, and repeat.
Anyways, like I said, I did plan it, but the execution was just plain old luck if you ask me.
Here's some pictures
of my technocratic utopia.
