Professor Sir David King said governments could only do so much to control greenhouse gas emissions and it was time for a cultural change among the British public.

He singled out women who find supercar drivers "sexy", adding that they should divert their affections to men who live more environmentally-friendly lives. His comments were greeted with anger by sports car drivers who insisted that their vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions were tiny compared with those from four-wheel drive vehicles.

"What I was saying is that you have got to admire people who are conserving energy and not those wilfully using it." Sir David, who persuaded the Government to start using the Toyota Prius, a hybrid car that laims to have lower emissions than most conventional cars, added: "Government has so many levers that it can pull - when it comes to the business sector it is quite effective.

"As soon as you come to the individual, however, they will buy a Ferrari, not because it is cheap to run or has low carbon dioxide emissions, but because young women think it is sexy to see men driving Ferraris. That is the area where a culture change is needed."

A Ferrari F430 produces 420g/km of carbon dioxide - more than four times as much as the hybrid petrol-electric Prius. Car enthusiasts criticised Sir David for attempting to lay the blame for climate change on a small number of drivers who own sports cars.

Peter Everingham, Secretary of the Ferrari Owners' Club, said: "Nearly 90 per cent of people who buy Ferraris are married so they are not looking to impress women by buying their car. There are fewer than 5,600 cars made a year by Ferrari. To suggest Ferraris are a factor in climate change is unhelpful."

Sir David, who will next month publish a book on climate change called Hot Topic, insists his comments were intended as an example of the scale of culture change that is needed in society in order to combat global warming. As chief scientist he has been instrumental in driving the climate change issue to the top of the political agenda. Three years ago he sparked controversy when he claimed that global warming was a more serious threat than that of global terrorism.

Sir David said: "For a while I was quite unpopular at Number 10, but the point is that the Prime Minister then understood this was a very important issue. Now I would go one step further and say that our civilisation has never had to face up to as big a challenge as the climate change challenge of the 21st century."

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