The proportion of people who do not believe in climate change has more than quadrupled since 2005, according to a government-funded survey.

Public support for wind and solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels has fallen sharply over the same period, with gas the only form of electricity production now perceived more favourably.

The findings, published today by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), come as hundreds of climate scientists and government officials from around the world head to Stockholm to finalise next week’s report on climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to announce that it is “extremely likely” that human influence on the climate caused more than half the global temperature increase since 1951. This would be