(BRUSSELS) - Most Europeans are very concerned about climate change though a sizeable minority feel they do not know enough to help counter it, a major EU poll released Thursday showed.

A majority of the 30,000-plus people interviewed throughout the EU and candidate nations, believe neither industry, national governments nor the European Unon itself is doing enough to tackle the problem, according to the Eurobarometer study.

Global warming/climate change was deemed one of the most serious world problems by 62 percent of those asked, ranking second behind poverty and the lack of food and water (68 percent) but ahead of international terrorism, armed conflicts and the global economic slowdown.

The figures were different when analysed by age, with younger and better educated respondents more concerned.

Responses also differed from one country to another. In Cyprus, 96 percent of those questioned described global warming as "a very serious problem" while that figure dropped to 59 percent in Britain.

According to the survey, three quarters of respondents regard climate change as a very or fairly serious issue, while 56 percent believe tackling it will have a positive impact on the economy.

A clear majority, 61 percent, said they had taken some kind of action towards cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

However 30 percent of Europeans think that CO2 emissions have only a marginal effect on climate change and 15 percent said they did not know whether it had an impact.

On top of that "lacking information" was cited as an important reason for not taking action against climate change.

It is important to understand wishes for "for better and more detailed information on the causes and risks of climate change," asserted Margot Wallstroem, EU commission vice-president.

"An important minority of European citizens, more than 40 percent, believe that they are not well informed on these issues," she said.

European Commission officials announcing the report stressed the need for the EU's target of a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, speaking at a press conference with Wallstroem, stressed the need for the EU commission's ambitious energy/climate change package to be approved without major changes.

"I hope that the European parliament and the council (of 27 EU nations) will vote by the end of the year without diluting... the package," he said.

The commissioner's plea came as the European parliament's influential industry committee voted to lower a target for using biofuels in vehicle fuel, part of the wider package.

The EU's energy and climate plan, unveiled last year, says at least 10 percent of fuel powering vehicles must come from renewable energy by 2020, without specifying a ratio for biofuels.

Green groups have criticised some grain-based fuels -- especially ethanol, made from corn -- as being nearly as CO2-intensive as petrol once the cost of production and transport are taken into account.

They also voice concern over the contribution biofuels make to deforestation and food price rises.

The EU parliamentary committee voted that at least 40 percent of these renewable fuels should be found from electricity or hydrogen, while research contuinues on higher performance "second generation" biofuels, which use more "biomass" waste than specially grown crops.

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