ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

One of Britain’s most eminent scientists warned today it was “appropriate to be scared” about the pace of climate change.

Former chief government scientist Sir David King stressed the situation was so grave that the UK should consider bringing forward the date for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases to almost zero from 2050 to 2040.

With polar ice melting faster and more extreme weather events than expected, Professor King told the BBC: “It’s appropriate to be scared. We predicted temperatures would rise, but we didn’t foresee these sorts of extreme events we’re getting so soon.”

He argued that the world could not wait for scientific certainty on events such as Hurricane Dorian, but said he believes the likelihood that Dorian is a climate change event is “very high”.

He added: “I can’t say that with 100 per cent certainty, but what I can say is that the energy from the hurricane comes from the warm ocean and if that ocean gets warmer we must expect more energy in hurricanes.” He continued: “If you got in a plane with a one in 100 chance of crashing you would be appropriately scared.

“But we are experimenting with the climate in a way that throws up probabilities of very severe consequences of much more than that.”

Fears in Britain about climate change hit a record high earlier this year, according to an Ipsos MORI poll for the Standard which showed 85 per cent of adults are now concerned about global warming, following the heatwave which saw a record temperature of 38.7C set on July 25 at Cambridge Botanic Gardens and Extinction Rebellion protests.

Other experts backed Sir David’s views. Imperial College London physicist Professor Jo Haigh from Imperial College London said: “David King is right to be scared — I’m scared too.”

However, some warned against excessive worrying. Petteri Taalas, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organisation, cautioned against the type of language being used in the climate change debate, emphasising the need to “stick to the facts”, which in themselves were “quite convincing and dramatic enough”.