AS THE nation struggles to recover from flood damage, the UK’s leading scientific research bodies will unite today to warn of the need for action to cut carbon emissions.

They say examples of “dangerous, long-term and potentially irreversible climate change” is growing.

In the run-up to crunch UN climate talks in Copenhagen next month, the Royal Society, the Met Office and the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) said evidence for dangerous global warming has “strengthened significantly”.

It follows the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning in 2007 that, without action to reduce emissions, the world could be facing increasing droughts, floods, loss of wildlife, rising seas and refugees in the future.

The floods in the UK, the recent heatwave across Europe, persistent drought in Africa, Australia and sea level rises in Bangladesh and the Maldives are all consistent with the projections of emerging impacts of climate change.

In Merseyside, impacts could include increasing prices of food, ill health, flooding and rising sea levels.

To highlight the need for tough action at the Copenhagen talks, 30 young people from Merseyside are hitch-hiking their way to Copenhagen on a “Climate Charge”.

The conference is crucial to replace the Kyoto protocol, the existing international treaty for the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The hitchhikers, who support Oxfam’s climate change Here And Now campaign, want to put as much pressure as possible on the North West political representatives who are taking part in the conference.

They also want to ensure world leaders are doing as much as they can for a fair and clear climate change deal for the poorest people in the world.

They believe climate change is happening here and now, and it is essential to cut emissions drastically to save the lives of millions of people.

Emma Dunkley, one of the Liverpool hitchhikers, said: “We have been working really hard in the last few months to organise this big event. We want our voices to be heard.

“We want world leaders to get it right – the lives of millions of the poorest people in the world are at stake.

“They are not even responsible for causing climate change and they are the ones we really need to think about.”

The activists will be sent off on their journey by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Mike Storey.

They will hitch-hike for two days across northern Europe to finally reach the Danish capital on December 11.

They will travel in small groups of three to watch out for each other, and will talk about how climate change is affecting poor people to anyone they meet on the way.

Once in Copenhagen, the hitch-hikers will meet with Chris Davies MEP and join a huge “human flood” for climate justice in the city centre.

Fran Collier, who is in her final year studying politics at the University of Liverpool, is one of the co-ordinators of the Liverpool Oxfam society.

The 20-year-old said: “More than 300,000 people die every year because of climate change – many of them are young women like me. Climate change is man-made and it is undermining development in poor countries.

“With the Oxfam society, we wanted to raise awareness, but also influence politicians to act now.

“We wanted to go to Copenhagen, but without generating a lot of carbon emissions.

“A lot of us are busy with their final year and walking to Copenhagen would have taken too long.

“So that is how the idea of hitch-hiking came about.

“Initially, we thought ‘this is a crazy idea, it is not really going to happen’.