One in five don't believe humans impact on climate

In a survey of more than 2,000 people, one in five said they did not believe human behaviour was altering the climate - while more than half said they were doing nothing to reduce their own carbon footprint.

The research, which comes in the run up to Saturday's Live Earth pop concert at Wembley, highlights the huge gap between scientists and politicians - who say the debate over climate change is over - and the views of ordinary people.

Almost every major political party in Britain and Europe is committed to taking action to reduce emission of carbon dioxide - the major greenhouse gas.

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Over the next few year few, millions of people could face new green taxes on travel, restrictions on the sale of energy guzzling appliances and lightbulbs, and even energy rationing schemes.

A slew of businesses - from Tesco to Drax, the owner of the UK's biggest coal fired power station - also accept that man-made pollution is warming up the atmosphere.

However, the poll of 2,031 adults revealed that opposition to the green measures could be significant. Eighteen per cent of people polled said human activity did not have a "significant effect" on the climate and 40 per cent said climate change was too uncertain for scientists to make useful forecasts about it. The survey found that 56 per cent believe "many leading experts" questioned whether climate change was linked to human behaviour.

Only 41 per cent said they were making "any effort" to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while 40 per cent believed global warming was caused by a mix of human, and natural, events.

Their views are in conflict with the science community. The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, written by hundreds of climate scientists, concluded that the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the result of human behaviour - and that the increased concentration will rise global temperatures.

Mr Phil Downing, head of environmental research at Mori, said: "The public is somewhere behind politicians and businesses on the climate change issue.

"Very few dismiss the notion of climate change out of hand, however. The scepticism is how strongly they feel the issue is, and how much it will be a problem.

"The is an idea put about that the debate on climate change is over. That is true for some people, but not everyone."

Man-made climate change is accepted more by the middle classes, the more affluent and those under the age of 55, the poll found.

Prof Phil Jones, the head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and one of Britain's most senior climate scientists, said the idea that "leading experts" were divided was a myth.

"Among the climate scientists who are actively publishing papers in this area, 99 per cent say that human-produced carbon dioxide is altering the climate," he said. "Scientists accept it, politicians across all parties in Europe accept it, and now many businesses accept it."