New research shows support for taking action on climate change is falling steeply.

The Lowy Institute's annual poll asked about 1,000 people for their opinions on a range of topics, including climate change and the war in Afghanistan.

The poll shows that there has been a steep fall in the number of Australians who think climate change is a serious problem which needs addressing now.

It says 41 per cent of respondents want to see action even if it means a significant cost, down 27 percentage points since 2006.

Thirty-nine per cent of poll respondents said they would not be willing to pay anything extra on their electricity bill to help tackle climate change.

Institute director Michael Wesley says the survey also shows 75 per cent of adult Australians believe the Federal Government has done a poor job addressing the climate change issue.

"The fact that the Government hasn't acted decisively, it's been on-again off-again with the ETS and then the carbon tax, I think it's a belief that the Government is wavering on this," he said.

"There is not much political will to do anything serious about it, and it's also tied to a belief ... [that] perhaps this isn't such a serious issue and doesn't need to be acted on immediately."

Mr Wesley says the poll found most people who are against action on climate change also feel most strongly that the Government has not done a good job in addressing it.

"When you drill into the figures, you find that those people who are most against action on climate change are also those who feel most strongly that the Government hasn't done a good job in addressing climate change," Institute director Michael Wesley said.

"So there's an interesting correlation between those numbers."

But he says younger people are more likely to support taking action.

"Generally we've found that people in the older demographic are less willing to spend extra money on tackling climate change," he said.

"The younger the demographic, the more support there is for paying something more to tackle climate change."

The poll also suggests nearly three-quarters of the population are concerned about asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat, and a majority of people oppose Australia's involvement in Afghanistan.

Mr Wesley says fewer people are worried about asylum seekers than last year.

"We found 72 per cent of Australians are concerned about asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat and that's down by about six points since last year," he said.

"So there is some softening in that, but it's not a huge softening."