Campaigners are calling on a civic leaders in Hampshire to declare a “climate emergency”.

Environmental protesters have launched a petition demanding Eastleigh Borough Council to declare an emergency and reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025.

The demands come after Winchester civic chiefs announced their own emergency at a meeting of cabinet members last week.

Extinction Rebellion believes that declaring an emergency and backing it up with action will send a message that councillors take the threat of climate change seriously.

Other demands include creating a citizens assembly to generate ideas, setting up a working group detailing an action plan; and to call on the UK government to help make sure that targets are met.

The group are pushing for action after a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated rising sea levels and uninhabitable areas will displace millions of people worldwide.

Shifting weather patterns, extreme weather events such as floods and droughts and mass extinctions will result in global famine, water shortages and soil infertility.

An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson said:

“We have less than eleven years to take urgent action to limit global warming or we risk catastrophic and irreversible climate change.

“Humans are having devastating the world causing Arctic sea-ice to melt, coral reefs to die and extreme weather events.”

The Liberal Democrat Winchester City Council is now aiming for a target of zero emissions by 2024 and achieving the same with the wider district by 2030.

However, levels of harmful emissions in the city currently exceed national standards, although the council’s carbon footprint has reduced by 31 per cent in the last decade.

The Daily Echo has contacted Eastleigh Borough Council and is awaiting comment.