NICOLA Sturgeon has urged world leaders arriving to Glasgow for crucial climate talks to “step up and increase their scale of ambition”.
The First Minster was speaking ahead of world leaders gathering at COP26 for a two-day summit as part of the fortnight-long climate conference.
She has warned that success at the Glasgow event remains “in the balance”, echoing pessimistic warnings by Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of COP26.
Ms Sturgeon told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she did not know if the UN’s COP26 climate conference would be a success.
She said: “I don’t know is the honest answer to that right now.
“I’m not round the negotiating table, Scotland’s not yet an independent country but I’ll be doing everything I can to make it a success.
“The leaders haven’t yet arrived here, they will arrive over the course of the morning and perhaps this time tomorrow we’ll have a better idea of the answer to that question.
“If the commitments that have been made coming into this conference are the commitments coming out of this conference, this answer will be no.”
Ms Sturgeon added: “So it’s in the balance and leaders have got to step up and increase their scale of ambition if it’s to be a success. We can’t afford failure here.
“The future of the planet, quite literally, the future of generations to come and in much nearer term the continued existence of many communities in the world depend on success here. So failure is really not an option.”
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Speaking to Sky News, Ms Sturgeon has said she “shares” Boris Johnson’s pessimism of a positive outcome to the climate talks at COP26 but urged world leaders to “put our shoulders to the wheel”.
She told Sky News: “The Prime Minister is right to be pessimistic at this stage – I share his pessimism.
“We’ve all got to put the pessimism to one side and put our shoulders to the wheel.
“The UK, having the presidency of this Cop, has a particular responsibility to corral the leaders, to bring them together, to encourage them to do more than they are currently committed to do.
“There’s a big gap on emissions, a big gap on climate finance – so much, much work to be done, and I will do everything I can to push it in the right direction.”
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