Speaking about climate change in 1994, Dr. Houghton said that delay served no one. “We should start to do what we can do now and also begin to plan to do more,” he said, and “not wait 10 or 20 years till things are more clear.”

Mr. Gore recalled Dr. Houghton in a statement as “a critical voice bringing the urgency of the climate crisis to the attention of policymakers.”

“He took seriously the responsibility of scientists to not only produce research,” Mr. Gore added, “but also to help ensure that the public world understood the implications of that research.”

Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, said in an email: “He understood earlier than most, and was willing to tell the politicians, that climate change was real and a threat not just to the richer countries, but especially to the poorer ones.”

Religion was central to Dr. Houghton’s life. In his autobiography “In the Eye of the Storm” (2013, with Gill Tavner), he said: “It was increasingly clear to me that the universe is God’s creation. As science was the means by which I would be able to explore and describe God’s creative work, I could not see how there could possibly be conflict between science and faith.”