Politicians are not prepared to act quickly enough to prevent the environmental disasters that will be caused by climate change, an expert has said.

Steve Connor, science editor at the Independent, expressed his opinion that people are not prepared to respond to the threat of global warming because it will be decades until the effects are felt.

His comments come after the Met Office-supported Ensembles Project released a report detailing the impact that the current high levels of carbon emissions will have on the UK over the next 50 years.

It showed that the country will be hit with more frequent and severe floods and storms, while summer temperatures in London could soar to 40 degrees centigrade.

Mr Connor argued that government officials across the world have been unable to respond to the issue in time for December 2009's Copenhagen Climate Change summit.

"Far easier to put it off until the next climate meeting in Mexico, or the one after that," he added.