While emerging economies are often accused of resisting the need to tackle climate change, the survey, carried out with the Seattle-based research group Global Market Insite, suggests otherwise. People in India and China are more willing than citizens of industrialised nations to place restrictions on carbon emissions from nations like their own.

Indians cared most about carbon emissions, with 55 per cent describing themselves as "very concerned"; just 32 per cent of Britons felt the same way. Dee says this flies in the face of calls for developing countries to wake up to the threat of climate change.

The survey polled opinions from 14,000 people in 14 countries to gather solid data on how people feel about climate change, he adds. Almost 90 per cent of those surveyed thought governments should do more to tackle the issue.