More than half of jobseekers would turn down a job if they felt the employer had a large carbon footprint, new research reveals.

According to a report from Carbon Retirement, 53% of employees would consider turning down a new job if it had a large carbon footprint, compared with 28% who admitted finding the right job is more important to them.

Most people feel personally responsible for the emissions they produce at work. Only 10% of respondents did not feel at all responsible for the carbon footprint of their job, just under a third (32%) felt fully responsible and 59% felt somewhat responsible.

Less than a third (29%) believe doing a ‘green' job justifies a large carbon footprint at work, with most claiming every employee has the same obligation to reduce their carbon footprint regardless of the job they do.

And public-sector workers were found to produce less pollution than their private-sector counterparts. Only 17% of public sector respondents believed they have a large work-related carbon footprint, compared with 29% of private-sector workers.

Dan Lewer, director at Carbon Retirement, said: "This survey shows that employees care a lot about how much carbon pollution they create in the course of their jobs. The fact over half of people would turn down a job if they felt their employer wasn't being responsible with regard to climate change is something all recruiters should be thinking about.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the half that care are the real talent."

Carbon Retirement offers an alternative to carbon offsetting in a bid to mitigate climate change.