What best practices should be followed when setting the default timezone in PHP to ensure accurate date and time handling across different server configurations?

When setting the default timezone in PHP, it's important to follow best practices to ensure accurate date and time handling across different server configurations. One way to do this is by explicitly setting the timezone using the `date_default_timezone_set()` function with a valid timezone identifier. This helps prevent inconsistencies that may arise from relying on the server's default timezone setting.

// Set the default timezone to 'UTC' to ensure consistent date and time handling
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');