While accepting climate change exists, Prof Happer argued that the role of humans in it had been exaggerated and that carbon dioxide - which he regards as "good" - had been "lumped in with real pollutants".

He said: "CO2 is certainly a good thing if you look at agricultural yields all over the world. You can see the Earth greening from satellites. It's exactly what you would expect from more CO2.

"In geological terms we are currently in a CO2 famine. In the past the levels of it have been mostly in the thousands of parts per million (ppm) but now it's a paltry 400ppm. Low CO2 levels are scary. They bring us closer to starvation."

Climate scientists have responded to Prof Happer's position suggesting the consequences of increasing CO2 to the levels he suggests would be heightened global warming, melting glaciers, thawing permafrost, dramatically rising sea levels and widespread death and destruction.

He has accused them of being "alarmist" and "fiddling temperature figures," and of being a "cult".

Prof Happer added: "They have got their figures wrong, there hasn't been any warming to speak of in the last 20 years. The models are skewed. It's all made up."