Carried out before the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, the survey found that more than half of respondents in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States said halting global warming should be a "key priority" regardless of the state of the economy.

Thirty percent said it should be "paused" so other problems can be addressed.

"This survey shows that there is far more common ground among the public when it comes to climate change and what to do about it, than what we often see on our TV screens and Twitter feeds," said Luke Tryl, UK director for More in Common, a non-profit focused on the sources and consequences of polarisation in society.

But the survey also revealed differences in outlook between the six nations, which could suggest people in rich economies hit hardest by climate impacts see the issue as more urgent compared to wealthy countries less afflicted.

More than 60 percent of respondents in France, Spain and Italy said tackling global warming should not give way to other problems, but barely 40 percent held this view in Germany, Britain and the US.

Germany and Britain have seen episodes of flooding and extreme heat, but the Mediterranean Basin -- a climate change "hotspot" according to the UN's IPCC climate science advisory body -- has been hammered by heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, all of which are predicted to worsen.

Two to three times as many respondents in each country said that climate change will cause "a large amount" of harm to the world in the future, compared to whether they personally will experience harm, possibly reflecting the extent to which people in rich countries are insulated from severe impacts.

When respondents were asked whether they had already personally experienced weather events caused by climate change, 48 to 58 percent in Spain, Italy and France said they had, compared to 44, 38 and 36 percent in Britain, the US and Germany, respectively.