The paper, called Net Zero: principles for successful behaviour change initiatives, was written by the Behavioural Insights Team, which was formerly part of the Cabinet Office before being part-privatised in 2014.

The paper made recommendations to address climate change such as encouraging the public to shift away from meat eating, promoting domestic tourism and discouraging business travel.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) had published the paper online, as it released the UK’s net zero strategy earlier this week.

However, the paper’s proposals were not included in the net zero strategy, and Beis later removed it from its website, claiming it was not government policy and published in error.

A spokesperson for the government said: “This was an academic research paper, not government policy.

“We have no plans whatsoever to dictate consumer behaviour in this way. For that reason, our Net Zero Strategy published yesterday contained no such plans.”