THE chief scientist of the Met Office has said climate change poses an "unprecedented challenge" to the future of the planet – but it is "not all lost" if world leaders act now.

In an exclusive interview with the Western Morning News ahead of the key Copenhagen summit on climate change, Professor Julia Slingo insisted that global carbon emissions needed to peak by the end of the next decade if the planet was to avoid "dangerous climate change".

The eminent physicist, one of the contributors to the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2007, took a swipe at the "extremely small minority" who claimed climate change was not caused by human activity.

She added that the prominence given to global warming deniers in the media was confusing the general public despite the science being overwhelmingly in favour of the man-made thesis. She said: "The message that we've given going into Copenhagen is, yes, the planet is warming and that's unequivocal. We're pretty confident, 95 per cent sure, or probably more than that now, that it's down to human activities."

Prof Slingo will be part of the delegation from the Exeter-based Met Office attending the Copenhagen conference, which starts on Monday and goes on for two weeks.

More than 65 world leaders and representatives from 192 countries will attempt to hammer out a deal on reducing carbon emissions in an effort to halt the increase in global temperatures that could have catastrophic effects.

Prof Slingo, who will be speaking at fringe events, said: "The message is that we face an unprecedented challenge globally in dealing with this. Copenhagen, and the fact that all these world leaders are now saying they are going to go, reflects that."

Her comments come as the UN launched an investigation into claims that scientists manipulated global warming data.

The claims stem from e-mails and other material taken from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and posted online, which climate sceptics allege show researchers manipulating evidence to support a theory of man-made global warming.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's IPCC, said the claims were serious and he wanted them investigated.

Prof Slingo told the WMN that recent attacks on climate scientists were "very difficult to handle" especially when "their arguments get equal weight to the massive body of evidence".

She said that the impact was damaging and was "leading to confusion within the public".

"I doubt it's making any difference to the political will and it's certainly not undermining in any way our science and the robustness of the science we do and our confidence in the science advice we give to Government."

As a consequence, the scientific community had to redouble its efforts to convince the public that human activity was in fact the cause of global warming.

She added: "We have to work harder to get our science out there and understood by the public in a way that they can then make their own judgment about who to believe. We haven't been very good at that in the past. That's something we're taking very seriously."

Number 10 told the WMN that Gordon Brown would not be diverted from his determination to achieve a significant global deal.

"The Prime Minister's view is that the science case for action is unequivocal and that is the starting point," said Mr Brown's spokesman.

"Obviously, people are entitled to their own opinions on this issue, but one has to look at the science and the science is unequivocal."

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband warned that in the run-up to the crunch talks in Copenhagen, there were attempts to "throw dust" in people's eyes over the issue.

"We must resist that, and keep listening to the science and not subscribe to people who are frankly flat Earth-ers," he said.

He added: "There will be people that want to use this to try and undermine the science and we're not going to let them."