Westminster Abbey: JSO activists spray-paint Charles Darwin grave

The other activist, Ms Bligh, said: “We’ve done this because there’s no hope for the world, really.

“We’ve done it on Darwin’s grave specifically because he would be turning in that grave because of the sixth mass extinction taking place now.”

Ms Lee added: “I believe he would approve because he was a good scientist and he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science.”

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed on Friday that last year was the warmest on record globally and the first calendar year that the average temperature exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Pursuing efforts to prevent the world warming more than 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures is one of the key commitments of the global Paris Treaty which countries agreed to in 2015, in a bid to avert the most dangerous impacts of climate change.

The scientists said human-caused climate change was the primary driver for record temperatures, while other factors such as the Pacific Ocean’s “El Nino” weather phenomenon, which raises global temperatures, also had an effect.

Analysis from the Met Office, University of East Anglia and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science also found 2024 was the hottest on record, and “likely” the first year exceeding 1.5C.