Cameron told to turn off the gas

A whopping 85 per cent of people quizzed by YouGov want laws to force energy privateers to dump dirty fossil fuels for wind, water and solar power sources in Britain.

It comes just days before a major green summit in London featuring over 20 ministers from the world's leading and emerging economies.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who has already been accused of hypocrisy for hosting the summit while more than halving solar subsidies, is being urged to go for "clean" generation.

A tiny 4 per cent of people are strongly opposed to moving to renewables, compared with the one in three who want a radical shift to clean electricity.

Wave and tidal power was the public's favourite for replacing closing coal and nuclear power stations, followed by nuclear, solar and then wind.

Wind, wave and tidal and solar also scored highly as people's second and third-favourite picks, well above coal, gas and nuclear.

The findings fly in the face of privateer's demands to ramp up polluting shale gas "fracking" in Britain, which has already caused small earthquakes near Blackpool.

Mr Cameron is expected to use the international clean energy conference in London on Wednesday and Thursday to make his first major environmental speech.

The poll was commissioned by campaigners Friends of the Earth, whose campaign is backed by Dragons' Den star Deborah Meaden.

"Gas, coal and nuclear are the technologies of the past," Ms Meaden said.

"Our country has the skills and the talent to be world-beaters in the renewable energy technologies of right now."

Separate survey in Scotland found that seven out of 10 people support using wind power in the quest to dump fossil fuels, which is supported by a whopping 88 per cent of Scots.

tonyp@peoples-press.com