CANDIDATES standing in East Hampshire found common ground on the issue of climate change.

With just days left before the general election on December 12, Alton Climate Action & Network (ACAN) urged residents to “think carefully about the climate crisis when they vote”.

The group highlighted a letter signed by 11,000 scientists this month which warned the “climate crisis” is “accelerating faster than most scientists expected” and threatens “the fate of humanity”.

The UN’s annual emissions report said this week that the situation was “bleak” as countries signed up to the Paris Agreement need to increase their carbon-cutting ambitions five fold to avoid dangerous warming.

Conservative parliamentary candidate Damian Hinds believes “climate change is a defining challenge of our age” and, while it is a global issue, the UK “must be a leader, as we have been to date”.

He added: “The UK has decarbonised faster than any other G20 country, reducing emissions by 29 per cent in the past decade alone.”

However, he agreed that hitting the UK’s “net zero” carbon target means reductions at a faster rate.

Mr Hinds highlighted the Tory manifesto’s “further support for offshore wind deployment” and “major investments in carbon capture” technology. He advocates “a practical approach” that goes “with the grain of people’s lives”.

Green Party candidate Zoe Parker said: “Voting Green matters. If 25 per cent of the electorate voted Green then all politicians would have to take notice and attitudes would change.”

She believes we could “act together” to halt the “biggest threat we have ever seen” adding that “unlike Brexit, climate change is happening right now”.

Liberal Democrat David Buxton told the Herald his party “will set a new legally binding target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2045 at the latest”, and implement “a comprehensive climate action plan, cutting emissions across all sectors”.

The Justice & Anti-Corruption Party’s Eddie Trotter said as an engineer specialising in reducing “emissions from large plants” this subject is close to his heart.

“I have watched in dismay as successive governments have failed to address this critical issue,” he added. “It is only thanks to the recent demonstrations before the election, particularly by young people, that the two main parties have paid it any attention.”

Labour’s Gaynor Austin said: "As a parent, grandparent and former teacher, protecting the planet for our children and future generations has to be a top priority for me. This means taking action now, not just talking about it.

"The next Labour government will lead the world in fighting climate change, with a plan to drive up living standards by transforming our economy into one low in carbon, rich in good jobs, radically fairer and more democratic."

UKIP’s Jim Makin was approached for comment.