A new PC energy report released this week by software company 1E, suggested that office equipment left on standby is speeding up climate change.

According to two UK surveys carried out in August and September 2006, 20% of office workers admitted to leaving their computers on at least three times each week, wasting more than £100m in electricity each year.

Switching off all computers would according to 1E reduce annual UK emissions with 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The equivalent of taking 120,000 4x4's of the road.

Just under 90% of white-collar workers had never been asked to switch off their PC at night. In response to why PCs was left on most answers focused on the hassle to shut down and that no-one else did it.

In general switching off the PC is not seen as important, which means that a minimum of 1.7 million workstations are left on permanently and a further 1.3 million are left on occasionally.

Environment organisations criticised the Government for not doing enough to force businesses to 'switch off' and save energy. WWF argued that legislation was "urgently required to stop this continuous waste of energy."