A TOP scientist called yesterday for more serious debate about climate change in the run-up to the general election.

Professor Brian Hoskins, chairman of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute, said that politicians needed to get to grips with the danger posed by rising temperatures.

“It’s like Titanic sailing into waters with icebergs and yet what we hear is a debate in the bar about who is going to buy the drinks,” he stormed.

“There’s some pretty nasty stuff out there and the conversation is just at a trivial level compared to the danger we have.”

He spoke out as climate scientists called for “an ambitious global agreement” at the COP21 summit in Paris in December.

They said that the evidence was stronger than ever but “the gap between climate science and policy is widening.”