Climate change activists protest outside BBC sites across country including Sheffield

Extinction Rebellion called on the corporation to declare a '˜climate and ecological emergency' as the group demonstrated outside sites including London, Bristol, Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham.

The BBC was urged to make climate emergency its top editorial and corporate priority, divest investments from fossil fuel corporations, and to become zero carbon by 2025.

A BBC spokesman said: "We've received a letter from this newly-formed campaign group.

'The BBC has a proud record of leading the way in sustainability in the media industry and we've set out further action including cutting energy use further, eradicating single use plastic and minimising the impact of necessary travel.

"In the last Charter period, we reduced our carbon footprint by a third.

'People can also see the clear impact programmes like Blue Planet II and Dynasties have had on public debate about the impact of humankind on the planet."

Serena Schellenberg of Extinction Rebellion said: "Now more than at any time in its history, we need the BBC to honour its founding value to be 'independent, impartial and honest'.

"We're facing a potentially existential threat to both our nation and our species, but the BBC's coverage is nowhere close to reflecting this.

"We're sure that many of those working within the BBC agree with us on this, and that many more are willing to listen - so we're coming with music and noise not as antagonists, but as friends looking to implore this organisation to shift its policy and play a vital role in facing up to the ecological crisis."

The group has held a series of protests in recent weeks.

The group said several hundred activists joined the protest outside the BBC's Broadcasting House in London, adding that some had super glued themselves to entrances.

More than 100 took part in a demonstration in Bristol and scores more in Sheffield, Manchester, Cambridge, Glasgow, Birmingham and Bangor in north Wales.