A former Prime Minister of Australia has voiced support for nuclear power, shale oil, and gas from coal seams as the solutions to a problem he is not convinced is all that serious.

John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007, made the comments in an interview before his address to the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation is a group put together by one of the UK's most prominent climate change sceptics, Nigel Lawson.

Mr Howard said he thought several estimates of the future impacts of climate change were overblown, though he “respects” the science underpinning them.

“I am opposed to putting a ludicrously heavy financial burden on often poorer people in the community in the name of shifting to renewables when I am unconvinced that catastrophe is around the corner,” the former PM said.

“When it is affordable and makes economic and political sense to do so, of course, you should use renewables. I am not opposed to using renewables.”

“I still think the most exciting thing the world can do in the next 20 years is lift a few hundred million, perhaps a billion people out of poverty by economic growth and globalisation.

“To me that is far more exciting than some of the things people are recommending on global warming,” Mr Howard said.

He also said it was somewhat hypocritical that Australia is willing to export uranium for international consumption, but will not use it for domestic power generation.

“Oil and gas from shale has brought about a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases in the United States. I am in favour of the use of nuclear power.”

“The nuclear option should be kept on the table. As it becomes more economic to have nuclear power, we should entertain it,” Mr Howard said.