Award-winning folk music duo Show of Hands are lending their support to a national campaign aimed at putting pressure on the UK government to take urgent action on climate change.

The 'I Count' campaign was launched in London last December by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition.

It is aimed at inspiring personal and political action to counter the view that climate change is too big a problem to fix.

'I Count' has already gained support from leading environmentalists as well as global poverty campaigners and now acoustic roots musicians Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have added their voices to the campaign.

Knightley said: "Much of our music is about celebrating our roots and heritage from traditional songs and folk tales to the landscape itself.

"If we don't do something about climate change now, we stand to lose that precious landscape along with the wildlife that depends on it."

Knightley and Beer both grew up in towns on the South Devon coast, not far from where seabirds such as kittiwakes and guillemots come together in colonies to breed each summer.

But according to the RSPB, kittiwakes at Hallsands, near Start Point, failed to breed this year and a shortage of food is thought to be to blame.

Similar food shortages have affected birds in the North Sea and this is thought to be the result of climate change causing sea temperatures to rise and affecting the fish and sand eel stocks on which the birds depend.

Beer said: "There are many traditional songs about the sea and the sailors and fishermen whose livelihoods depended on it.

"Seabirds would have been their companions as they went off to explore the globe, or fight for their country, so protecting them by taking action on climate change is in a way protecting our history."

Show of Hands, who were voted "Best Live Act" at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, are currently on a 36-night UK tour promoting their acclaimed new album Witness, the title song of which was inspired by the alternative lifestyle of a Devon commune.

In tune with the climate change campaign, it contains the lyrics "We found haven here in the Devon hills / Until the icecaps melt and the valleys fill/ We'll sail away and look right down at the carbon footprints in the sand".

The 'I Count' campaign calls on the UK government to provide the following:

- Action internationally: ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions are irreversibly declining by 2015.

- Action for justice: deliver assistance to developing countries to adapt to climate change and give access to clean energy to meet their developmental needs.

- Action in the UK: introduce a Carbon budget in the Queen's speech to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 3 per cent per year.

Stop Climate Chaos, the coalition behind I Count, is made up of a variety of charities and organisations, including the RSPB.

The conservation charity's regional spokeswoman, Sophie Atherton, said: "This is an ideal opportunity for people to tell the UK Government that urgent action is needed to stop climate chaos - and show they mean it by taking action themselves."