Climate change campaigners are hoping that a new computer game dubbed a Football Manager for eco-enthusiasts will help their cause reach new audiences.

The Fate of the World game, released on PC tomorrow, uses real climate data and challenges players to save the planet from soaring temperatures, floods, droughts and fires.

It has been created by the developer Red Redemption with the input of the University of Oxford's Dr Myles Allen.

The player becomes the head of a fictitious international organisation and is presented with a budget, environmental data and policies to pore over.

Their options include enforcing a cap on emissions, continuing to invest in bio-fuels and the rather bleaker choice of inventing a virus to reduce the world's population.

Its makers say the strategy game is based on the "latest science covering the next 200 years".

Its promo reads: "The game features a dramatic set of scenarios based on the latest science covering the next 200 years. You must manage a balancing act of protecting the Earth's resources and climate versus the needs of an ever-growing world population, who are demanding ever more food, power, and living space. Will you help the whole planet or will you be an agent of destruction?"