More than 1,700 scientists have signed a statement defending the evidence for man-made climate change in the wake of an "unprecedented attack" on global warming research.

The petition was organised by the Met Office in the wake of the row over stolen emails from the University of East Anglia.The emails between members of the prestigious Climatic Research Unit and other academics were seized on by climate change sceptics who claim they reveal that scientists manipulated data on global warming.

The statement signed by the scientists said: "We, members of the UK science community, have the utmost confidence in the observational evidence for global warming and the scientific basis for concluding that it is due primarily to human activities."

A Met Office spokesman said that John Hirst, its chief executive, and Julia Slingo, its chief scientist, wrote to 70 colleagues on Sunday asking them to sign "to defend our profession against this unprecedented attack to discredit us and the science of climate change".

They asked them to forward the petition to colleagues to generate support "for a simple statement that we... have the utmost confidence in the science base that underpins the evidence for global warming".

Earlier this month the United Nations panel on climate change announced that it would investigate the stolen emails to see if there is any evidence of manipulation or suppression of data.

East Anglia has appointed the former vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Sir Muir Russell, to head an independent review into the email allegations.

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