Nicola Sturgeon has said COP26 should be “bloody uncomfortable” for countries as they try to hammer out a deal to save the planet.
The First Minister also said it would be “catastrophic” for the world to continue drilling for oil.
Over 100 world leaders will be in Glasgow this week in a bid to reach an global agreement to bring temperatures down.
COP26 has been described as a last chance for the over-heating planet and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was downbeat yesterday about the prospects of a game-changing deal.
Scotland is not a member of the United Nations, but Sturgeon addressed a fringe event on the importance of sub-national governments in addressing the climate crisis.
“I'm not going to betray any secrets here when I say I would prefer Scotland to be round the negotiating table here in our own right."
"But short of that, we've got to make sure we're doing everything we can. First and foremost that means doing the things we need to do and winning credibility."
She added: “Scotland, I think, by any measure, can claim to be a world leader in climate action, but the bar of world leadership is far too long.”
She warned: “This summit should not feel comfortable for anybody in a position of leadership and responsibility. It should feel bloody uncomfortable because nobody yet is doing enough and that's the reality."
On the SNP Government’s failure to hit its own climate change targets, she said: “I would rather have ambitious targets that we fall marginally short of, because we will achieve more that way, than having targets that are not at all stretching that we leap over every year.
Sturgeon spoke to climate change activist Greta Thunberg today and said people like her “make us confront the hard realities of our own lack of delivery”.
On oil and gas production, a key driver of climate change and also a vital part of the Scottish economy, she said all countries have difficult issues to “confront”.
She warned: “But that can't be an excuse for saying 'let's just keep going drilling for oil and gas indefinitely' because that's catastrophic for the planet."
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