A new survey of Australian politicians shows a clear majority believe climate change is happening, but many appear to be unsure about some of its consequences.

The University of Queensland (UQ) survey of more than 300 federal, state and local government politicians found that nearly 70 per cent believed human-induced climate change was happening and rated it as one of Australia's most important challenges.

But more than 40 per cent of those questioned said they believed it would be safe for the planet to warm by 4 degrees Celsius, despite scientific warnings that a global temperature increase of 2 degrees or more could be dangerous.

The survey also uncovered confusion about what climate change really meant.

For instance, 75 per cent of politicians believe the Great Barrier Reef is threatened by global warming, but only 55 per cent agree that ocean ecosystems are also threatened, even though the Great Barrier Reef is part of the ocean's ecosystems.

Kelly Fielding, from the Institute for Social Science Research at UQ, says the results highlight the complexity of the issue of climate change.

"It takes a high level of knowledge, and scientific knowledge, to really understand the full range of effects," she said.

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of UQ's Global Change Institute agrees.

"This is a complex area and I think this is revealing that even our leaders have trouble getting the core concepts," he said.

Some scientists are alarmed by the response on the effects of a 4-degree temperature rise.

Nearly 7 per cent of politicians believe a rise of up to 6 degrees would be safe.

Climate scientists say such rises will probably lead to an escalation of heatwaves, bushfires and the melting of the polar ice caps.

"The thing that scared me most of all in the survey is the temperature question," said Andy Pitman from the University of NSW's Climate Change Centre.

"I find it remarkable that people would think warming of four, five, six, seven degrees might be loosely defined as safe."

Dr Fielding says some stark party political differences were also evident.

Asked whether the planet was warming because of human activity producing greenhouse gases, 98 per cent of Greens said "yes" compared to 89 per cent of Labor, 57 per cent of non-aligned politicians and 38 per cent of Liberal-National politicians.

Throughout the survey, many more Liberal-National politicians answered "don't know" or "uncertain".

"What you're seeing is greater certainty and belief on the part of the Labor Party politicians and more knowledge about the specifics of climate change, whereas for the Liberal-National Party politicians it's greater uncertainty, and that uncertainty is creeping through in terms of being able to respond to specific questions about climate change that tap into the detail of climate change," Dr Fielding said.

Only 56 per cent of surveyed politicians trust the world's leading climate science body, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), although nearly 70 per cent said they were greatly influenced by what scientists said.

But again, that depended on party affiliation. Ninety-eight per cent of Greens said they were greatly influenced by scientists compared to 85 per cent of Labor politicians, 54 per cent of non-aligned politicians and 44 per cent of Liberal-National politicians.

Only 18 per cent of federal politicians responded to the survey. Of the entire survey group, 97 were Labor, 73 Liberal-National, 41 were Greens and the remaining 97 described themselves as non-aligned.