A UNIVERSITY professor was among protesters outside Downing Street calling for the government to go further with their climate commitments.

University of Sussex professor Benjamin Sovacool joined leading climate experts, scientists and MPs to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The letter, which was delivered on Thursday, demanded the Prime Minister push for three outcomes from the COP26 and COP15 climate conferences.

The plea included calls for the creation of a joint emergency strategy for climate and nature, to commit to the carbon budget for 1.5°C and to go nature positive by 2030.

The letter was also signed by University of Sussex biology professor Dave Goulson, as well as environmentalists Stanley Johnson, Isabella Tree, Sir Jonathon Porritt and Liz Bonnin.

Representatives from the business sector including Lush, the Co-operative Bank, The Green Economy Coalition, Slow Food UK and Toast Ale also signed.

Benjamin Sovacool, professor of energy policy in the university’s Science Policy Research Unit, said: "Additional and significant climate and ecological commitments are desperately needed because the current response to the impending climate crisis does not go nearly far enough and even existing government plans are inadequate to fully protect nature or stabilize the climate.”

The call to action is based on a report by campaign group Zero Hour, who created the report with scientists from the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, University of Linköping, CORDIO East Africa and the International Institute for Environment and Development.

“The recent IPCC report, while complex, carries a sobering and simple message: we are on a track to true climate catastrophe,” professor Sovacool added.

“In order to ensure that global warming does not exceed 2°C temperature levels, rapid, transformative, and sustained action is needed.

“The world is set to use up its carbon budget in a matter of years, not decades. We must act with an urgency unlike any other challenge facing human history.”

Zero Hour campaign coordinator Dr Amy McDonnell said: “That leading scientists are urging the PM to take action speaks volumes about both the crises we face, but also the golden opportunity we have as hosts of COP26 to lead the world and push for these three key COP outcomes.

“If we fail, we’ll be on the road to an un-livable future. This is a warning from the scientists.”