Prince Charles has called people who deny human-made climate change a "headless chicken brigade" who are ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

The heir to the British throne, a dedicated environmentalist, accused "powerful groups of deniers" of mounting "a barrage of sheer intimidation" against opponents.

He made the comments at a Buckingham Palace awards ceremony on Thursday.

Charles said it was "baffling ... that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything — until, that is, it comes to climate science."

He praised finalists for the Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize for having "the far-sightedness and confidence in what they know is happening to ignore the headless chicken brigade and do something practical to help."