AN Exeter doctor is calling for universal access to contraception to help fight climate change.

A spiralling global population, with an annual increase of 79 million people, is driving up greenhouse gas emissions, says GP Pip Hayes, of the city's St Leonard's Practice.

In an editorial in the British Medical Journal, she and John Guillebaud, of University College, London, raise the question of whether people in the UK should be told that stopping at two children is “the simplest and biggest contribution” that can be made towards saving the planet.

The doctors say every person born adds to greenhouse gas emissions, with demand for food, fossil fuels, water and forests outstripping supply.

And they point to research from the Optimum Population Trust which says each new birth in the UK will be responsible for 160 times more greenhouse gas emissions than a birth in Ethiopia.

“We must not put pressure on people, but by providing information on the population and the environment, and contraception for everyone, doctors should help to bring family size into the arena of environmental ethics,” they say.