The scientist who convinced the world that global warming was a looming danger says the planet will be better off if next week's Copenhagen climate change summit ends in collapse.

James Hansen, considered the most distinguished climate scientist, says any agreement to emerge from the meeting will be so flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.

His words came on the same day as the University of East Anglia announced an investigation into the thousands of damaging leaked emails emanating from its Climatic Research Unit.

Professor Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute earth sciences unit in New York. In 1989 he made several appearances before Congress and did more than any other scientist to educate politicians about the causes of global warming and the urgent need to change behaviour.

Earlier this year, he was awarded the Carl Gustaf Rossby Research Medal by the American Meteorological Society. It was awarded for his outstanding contribution to climate modelling and for clear communication of climate science in the public arena.

He certainly was not mincing his words when he gave his views to the Guardian newspaper online about the prospects for next week's climate change conference.

"The approach that's being talked about is so fundamentally wrong that it's better to reassess the situation," he said.

"I think it's just as well that we not have a substantive treaty."

Professor Hansen argues that the process is so flawed because it relies on cap and trade emissions trading schemes, like the one proposed by the Australian Government.

Instead of allowing polluters to buy the right to continue polluting, he prefers a tax on the price of carbon at the mine or the port.

"The whole idea that you have goals that you're supposed to try to meet and that you have outs with offsets means that it's an attempt to continue business as usual," he said.

Professor Hansen's research has been put under a microscope after the leaking last month of emails sent by scientists at Britain's University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

Climate sceptics have seized on the correspondence, claiming that it shows how flimsy climate science is.

It has now been revealed one of the United States president's advisers, John Holdren, was involved in sending and receiving the emails. Republicans accused him of being a scientific fascist.

The university's vice chancellor, Professor Edward Acton, he is treating it as a matter of enormous importance.

"I think [it's] very important that the university be sure-footed and confident about each step that it takes and I think we must now look forward to the review being undertaken, I hope swiftly," he said.

The head of the university's prestigious research unit stands by his data but he has stood down and an independent investigation into the contents of the emails has now been announced.