But the alarming report signed by more than 11,000 experts in the field of science has raised fears that the hot topic will be used by governments as a means to interfere in people’s lives. The declaration of the global crisis is based on analysis of more than 40 years of publicly available data covering a range of measures from energy use to deforestation and carbon emissions. Signatories from 153 countries including the UK put their names to the document published in Bioscience, laying out suggestions for governments, businesses and members of the public to take focusing on six key areas.

Touching on the number of inhabitants of the world, the group said there was a need to stabilise the figure, which is growing by around 200,000 per day, and “ideally gradually reduce” Earth’s population.

They proposed making family planning services available to all people as a way to stem the number of babies born every day.

But the report was met with scepticism by many commentators on social media who said the climate crisis risked being hijacked by those at the top.

“‘Climate change’ is simply the phoney excuse they’ll use to get us there.”

Another person suggested there would be racist consequences if population control was rolled out, with third world countries, where birth rates are typically higher, likely to be hardest hit.

Another Twitter user said there was “plenty” of space for the growing population to live on the planet and claimed “the elite” wanted to control people’s lives.

Another said: “Population control is a cop-out term used by the elite.

“We should not be accepting it as anything resembling a ‘solution’ to climate change.”

Scientists from the University of Sydney, Oregon State University, Tufts University and the University of Cape Town in South Africa backed the warning.

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Activities including sustained increases in human populations, the amount of meat consumed per person, the number of air passengers carried and global tree cover loss were noted as “profoundly troubling” signs.

The alliance of scientists said despite 40 years of global climate negotiations, people have largely failed to address the problem.

They said: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected.”

To help lessen the worse effect of climate change, they suggested a number of changes including replacing fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables, protecting forests and other natural systems and eating more plant-based foods.

Dr Thomas Newsome, at the University of Sydney, said: “Scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity of any great threat.

“From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emergency.”

He added: “While things are bad, all is not hopeless. We can take steps to address the climate emergency.”

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