Nigel Farage has said the UK should scrap its efforts to tackle climate change despite overwhelming evidence the planet is warming at an unprecedented rate. Speaking on the BBC on Wednesday, the leader of Reform UK said Britain should not commit "economic hari-kari" by pursuing an idea it will "somehow save the world" through its net zero efforts to cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions.

He claimed: "Frankly, what we've really done in the last 20 years is to delude ourselves by allowing all of our heavy industries to close, to relocate to China and India, for the goods that we used to make here to be manufactured there under lower environmental standards and then the products shipped back to us." Mr Farage agreed with Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice's claim that net zero will make "zero difference" to climate change. He called for Britain's net zero targets to be scrapped.

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Asked how Reform UK would tackle climate change, Mr Farage told his interviewer to ask the Chinese. He claimed Britain should be mining coal and be self-sufficient and even export gas, adding: "We make no difference (to climate change mitigation)."

Recent polling by YouGov shows Reform UK voters are an exception among Brits on the causes and extent of climate change. It found 62% of Brits believe concerns about climate change are not exaggerated, while 61% of Reform UK supporters think it has.

Conservative voters tend to be more sceptical than average, but a majority (55%) still hold the view the climate is changing due to human activity, according to YouGov's poll.

The polling shows that while the public largely accepts the scientific consensus, they are becoming more sceptical about government policy on climate change.

Over the last five years, enthusiasm for spending on the environment has gone downwards, with 29% of Britons seeing it as one of the areas of spending which most needs to be cut, compared to 17% who believe it is one of the sectors where a spending increase is needed most.

Bob Ward from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said Reform UK rejects the findings of the Royal Society and the rest of the world’s scientific bodies.

He said experts have made it "crystal clear" that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are responsible for growing impacts on lives and livelihoods in the UK and around the world.

Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay MP, accused Mr Farage of misleading the public. He said: "Nigel Farage is a performer, a con artist. He will say or do anything. He will happily dance to a populist tune regardless of its impact."

He also claimed: "This morning’s performance suggested he hasn’t got the slightest grasp of even the most basic climate science. But I think it’s worse than that.

"He understands all too well human-made climate change, but he is willing to pretend he doesn’t and stand in the way of climate action for his party's populist agenda."

By law, Britain is committed to reaching net zero by 2050, which means that total greenhouse gas emissions should be equal to those removed from the atmosphere.

The aim is to limit global warming and the impact of manmade climate change. Under the plans, the whole country has to reduce its emissions by 68% by 2030.