FIVE protesters have chained themselves to the Scottish Parliament, demanding MSPs take further action on climate change or risk "ecocide".

Keys to the locks have been sent to the five Scottish party leaders with a letter urging them to set a net-zero target of 2025.

The Climate Bill this month has a net-zero target by 2045, but the protesters, from Extinction Rebellion, say this is “nowhere near ambitious enough”.

They said: “A target of 2045 is tantamount to accepting ecocide”.

Unfortunately for the group, keys sent to the LibDems and the Scottish Tories were seemingly initially lost in the post.

Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie was first to arrive, and unchain a protester. He was followed by Willie Rennie. Tory MSP Maurice Golden was next, followed shortly by Richard Leonard.

Environment minister Roseanna Cunningham was the last to unlock a protester. 

In their letter Extinction Rebellion say: “According to the IPCC, the whole world –including many countries whose historical emissions and capacity to respond to the crisis are far less than those of Scotland – needs to make radical cuts in emissions by 2030 in order to stand even a chance of keeping global warming to 1.5°C.

“It’s not about what’s feasible under the current system of business-as-usual: it’s about what’s necessary to deal with this existential threat to humanity. A target of 2045 is tantamount to accepting ecocide.”