NICOLA Sturgeon has said that "the action from small countries matters" in the fight against climate change in her Ted Talk as Glasgow prepares to host world leaders at COP26.

The First Minister's speech was part of Ted’s Countdown Summit series, which will see a range of different speakers visit the Scottish capital to share their blueprint for a net zero future from October 12 to 15.

Sturgeon said: "I want to start today with a question. In other contexts, perhaps a risky question, not one you would expect from somebody in my position in a talk about climate change, but it's important. Does size matter?"

She went on to reference the the world’s first floating windfarm in the North Sea, which has broken UK records for energy output, and the world's most powerful wind turbine at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

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"These are all extraordinary feats of technology and engineering, but they also demonstrate how Scotland, a relatively small country, helping to power the world into the net-zero age," the First Minister added.

"We so often talk about the contributions of America, Russia, China, Brazil, and that's important, we wouldn't limit global warming without these countries, but we also have to recognise that the action of small countries matters too. In the words of the current prime minister of Estonia [Kaja Kallas], small countries have no time."

When former US president Donald Trump took his country out of the Paris climate agreement during his tenure, it was a “coalition of states and cities that kept the momentum going”, the First Minister said.

“If we raise our ambition and if we follow that through with action, then we can spur the bigger countries to go further and faster too,” she said.

The First Minister did not voice opposition to the Cambo oil field development proposed near Shetland which has proven controversial with politicians and environmental campaigners alike. She said the license needs to match a "climate compatibility" test and that that transition from fossil fuels has to be made “sustainably and fairly”.

Sturgeon also said Scotland must “be careful” not to leave communities behind as it transitions away from oil and gas.

She also repeated calls for licences to extract oil and gas from the North Sea to be reassessed by the UK Government given the current threat of climate change.

“We’ve got to be careful that we don’t leave people and communities behind in that transition,” the First Minister said.

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“We’ve got to be careful we don’t switch domestic production to imports of oil and gas – that would be counter-productive.

“So the way in which we make the transition matters, but we can’t have business as usual, because if we keep telling ourselves we can rely on fossil fuels forever, then we’ll never make that transition and that’s the key point we’ve got to address.”

With COP26 coming to Glasgow at the end of this month, Sturgeon said it is imperative that leaders leave Scotland’s biggest city able to “look the next generation in the eye”, knowing they have done enough to stave off what scientists have identified as humanity’s biggest threat.

“Glasgow, and the agreement that comes out of Glasgow, must – in detail, not in rhetoric, in detailed funding commitments and in other commitments – have the ability to meet the Paris objective,” she said.

“If it doesn’t do that, then we will be letting down future generations and in my view that is unthinkable and we should not let it happen.”

It's the First Minister's second Ted Talk as she delivered another one in July 2019 about why government should prioritise wellbeing, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube.

Sturgeon will also give a talk to the Arctic Circle Assembly, the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Thursday.

She will discuss Scotland’s links with the Arctic nations and how all countries must work together to tackle the climate emergency.

Other speakers at the event will include the prime minister of Iceland, the Danish minister for foreign affairs and the EU commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries.