Nicola Sturgeon will set out her climate catch-up plans later this week after missing targets for the last three years.
Speaking at an event at Strathclyde University in Glasgow the First Minister said her government had "fallen short" in meeting its targets.
The SNP leader spoke as around 120 world leaders are set to descend on Glasgow for the United Nations COP26 climate conference which kicks off on Sunday, October 31.
In a bid to hit targets the Scottish Government will publish a catch-up plan which will focus on decarbonising public sector buildings, promoting home upgrades, and to make bus travel "cleaner and more accessible".
She also used her speech to challenge those countries which have the highest emissions levels - such as China, Russia, the US and India - to do more to tackle the climate emergency.
Sturgeon said: "We have pledged to meet our targets through domestic effort, not by reliance on international credit trading.
"So we have much to be proud of. But still, we need to do better. It is not enough to set tough targets - we must meet them.
"Despite all of our progress, we have fallen short on our last three annual milestones.
"Two years ago, our emissions were 51.5 per cent lower than in 1990. But to meet that year’s annual target, they needed to be 55 per cent lower.
"The law in Scotland stipulates that if we miss any annual targets, we must outperform in future years to make up for it. So this week we will publish a catch-up plan.
"It will highlight some of the actions already announced this year.
"And also set out a range of additional measures - for example, to decarbonise public sector buildings; promote home upgrades; and make bus travel cleaner and more accessible.
"Many of these measures were committed to in the Co-operation Agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party - an agreement which explicitly, and rightly, places climate policy at the heart of everything we do.
"Over the next three weeks, we will highlight other aspects of the work the Scottish Government is doing to put the climate front and centre - it will include planning policy, agriculture, nature restoration, wave and tidal power and green hydrogen.
"On all these, we are stepping up our ambition and action."
Sturgeon also warned that even keeping temperature rises to 1.5C would not prevent all the damaging impacts of climate change.
Limiting temperature rises to as close to 1.5C as possible was one of the key agreements from the Paris climate summit in 2015, with the upcoming Cop26 event in Glasgow being seen as a chance to step up efforts towards achieving that.
She continued: "The hard fact is this: 'Keeping 1.5 alive' - which has become the strapline almost for Cop26 - is vital. It mustn't become a face-saving slogan. It must be real.
"And both in the run-up to and at Cop itself, there needs to be a significant uplift in ambition from the world's biggest-emitting countries to make that real.
"And each and every country gathered round the negotiating table also knows the action that is needed to prevent it. So there is not excuse for failing to act."
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