Mick Jagger has condemned the Trump administration over its stance on climate change and blamed the US president, along with British prime minister Boris Johnson, for polarising their nations’ citizens.

The Rolling Stones frontman appeared at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of Burnt Orange Heresy, in which he co-stars as an art dealer. It is Jagger’s first significant film role since 2001’s The Man from Elysian Fields.

“We are in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the US, where all the environmental controls that were put in place – that were just about adequate – have been rolled back by the current administration so much that they are being wiped out,” Jagger said via The Hollywood Reporter.

“The US should be the world leader in environmental control but now it has decided to go the other way.”

Jagger’s comments were made after a group of young climate change activists protested near the festival, and spray-painted “Listen to your children” and “Make the red carpet green” on the red carpet.

“I am so glad that people feel so strongly about that that they want to protest,” Jagger said. “I’m absolutely behind that. I’m glad they’re doing that because they’re the ones who are going to inherit the planet.”

He also condemned Trump, Johnson, and Brazil's Jair Balsonaro for causing division rather than unity in the countries they currently lead.

“In so many countries, including my own this last week… but particularly the US, it’s a bit of a sea change. It is not about manners,” Jagger said. He added that he feared “where all this polarisation and rudeness and lying [is going to lead us]”.