Given the rock world’s propensity for trying to save the real world from disaster, it was inevitable that global warming would follow African debt as rock’s mantra of concern. Hardly surprising, either, given the traditionally carboniferous nature of rock stars’ jobs and lifestyles, that some of them would come unstuck. It’s not easy lending support to an idea that, at the very least, deplores your use of a private jet – and, in extreme cases, asks what you think you’re doing on a giant stage, burning up megawatts of electricity in lights and amplification. It isn’t any easier when the boss of rock’s benign interventions, Bob Geldof, has accused you of wasting “yer f***in’ time”.

Live Earth, the series of consciousness-raising stadium concerts to be staged at nine venues across the world on July 7 has provoked more debate about its right to exist than it has about the future of life on this planet. Geldof has criticised it for lacking a clear objective: “I would only organise a gig like this if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the US presidential candidates,” he told a Dutch newspaper. He has also objected to the way that the name piggy-backs on Live Aid and Live 8. “We’re getting lots of responses from people who think we’re organising it.”

There’s not the usual level of solidarity among musicians, either. The turnout of Alist pop celebs is impressive – Madonna, the Police and Red Hot Chili Peppers head a stellar cast of 150 acts. But some of rock’s most outspoken environmental activists, notably Radiohead, aren’t appearing. Roger Daltrey, of the Who, told The Sun that, in his opinion, “the last thing the planet needs is another rock concert”, and offered a radical alternative: “My answer is to burn all the f***ing oil as quick as possible, and then the politicians will have to find a solution.”

Live Earth is also having to field jibes about the embarrassing collusion of at least two of the performers at the New York event in the television advertising of gas-guzzling SUVs. John Legend is featured in a new Lexus commercial, while Sheryl Crow’s hit Everyday Is a Winding Road is helping to sell Sub-aru 4WDs. Such is the level of disquiet felt about Al Gore’s debut as a promoter of music shows that a pressure group in New Zealand, the Climaction coalition, is urging people to protest about it on July 7. In the past, the coalition has accused Gore himself of “greenwashing”.

All of the above unhelpfully distract from the various environmentally useful initiatives the Live Earth shows hope to promote. The Wembley concert, for instance, uses a backdrop designed from recycled tyres and oil drums, and is lit by low-energy compact fluorescent light bulbs – the sort of thing that we should all try at home, apparently. Another of the exemplary points Live Earth aims to make is that stadium rock concerts can be staged using half the amount of electricity they have taken up in the past.

This message is being enthusiastically embraced. There is a growing consensus among the rock fraternity that they really should try to cut down on carbon emissions, particularly where concerts are concerned. Cynics might note that, in many cases, these cuts achieve cost savings that do not seem, as yet, to have been passed on to the fans in the form of cheaper tickets. Pragmatists will argue back that only when energy efficiency is shown to pay will it ever become truly popular.

Either way, as far as planet rock is concerned, it’s happening. Over the past year, bands who would once brag about the size of the truck convoys that carted their paraphernalia around enormo-dromes have begun quietly to shrink their fleets.

The Rolling Stones, the first stadium act to go “carbon neutral” – by endowing forests to compensate for the noxious gases they emitted during their 40 Licks tour in 2004 – have shed five container lorries for the final leg of their current Bigger Bang extravaganza. As a result, the Stones now carry less steel in their stage set, and fewer options in their mobile catering operation. The lorries are getting greener, too. In line with the Stones’ practice, Redburn Transfer, Europe’s largest music haulier, reports a steep increase in demand for bio-diesel vehicles.

Stage lighting is another area where energy efficiency is all the rage. Three years ago, when Radiohead started replacing their old floods and spots with LED lights, which consume far less electricity, but aren’t as bright, they were regarded as eco-hardline eccentrics. Now they are seen as pioneers of “sustainable lighting” – not least because the lower intensity of LEDs means they can be turned on the audience, creating a dramatic effect without blinding everybody.

Unfortunately, the band themselves seem to have concluded that such measures are not enough. Thom Yorke said last year that he “would consider refusing to tour on environmental grounds”, adding that Radiohead did not believe in the efficacy of so-called “carbon offsets” – through which other bands make amends for excess energy usage on the road by planting trees, paying for wind farms or supporting recycling projects. The Dave Matthews Band have been retrospectively atoning for their environmental sins by purchasing carbon offsets to cover all the gigs the group have played since they formed in 1991.

Many will deem such efforts laudable; some might consider them, in the larger scheme of things, ineffectual. Quite a few will probably find them rather funny, in the unintended way that rock stars often are when their overweening sense of their own importance clothes itself in some higher moral purpose.

The biggest threat to Live Earth’s being taken seriously may well be one of the acts on the bill at Wembley. After 15 years in semi-retirement, Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest’s spoof metal band, have reformed for the event. Al Gore had better hope that their slogan for the day – “We’re hot, and so’s the planet” – doesn’t catch on.

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