Cop26: The key messages at the conference

David Attenborough: “In my lifetime I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery."

David Attenborough, naturalist and broadcaster, tells world leaders:

“Is this how our story is due to end – a tale of the smartest species doomed by that all too human characteristic of failing to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals?

“Perhaps the fact that the people affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generations but young people alive today, perhaps that will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph.” 

He added that “we are after all the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on earth” and that we “now understand the problem” of how to put climate change into reverse.

Attenborough, speaking more hopefully:

“In my lifetime I’ve witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery. That desperate hope… is why the world is looking to you and why you are here.” 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told reporters at the summit that carbon taxes are necessary:

“You do need to fund and the carbon tax over time will provide very substantial resources to enable us to do those things, as well as just transition.

“I don’t see why people would be against cleaner oceans and cleaner water, fresher air and a healthier lifestyle. And that’s actually what we can develop.” 

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General:

“We face a stark choice: either we stop it [climate change] — or it stops us.

“It’s time to say: enough. Enough of brutalising biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet.

“Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.” 

Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, in his speech to the summit:

“The children who will judge us are children not yet born, and their children.

“We are now coming centre stage before a vast and uncountable audience of posterity and we must not fluff our lines or miss our cue.

“Because if we fail, they will not forgive us – they will know that Glasgow was the historic turning point when history failed to turn.

“They will judge us with bitterness and with a resentment that eclipses any of the climate activists of today, and they will be right.” 

Greta Thunberg addressing young protesters in Festival Park in Govan, across the River Clyde from the Cop26 venue:

“Change is not going to come from inside there – that is not leadership, this is leadership,” she said.

“We say no more blah blah blah, no more exploitation of people and nature and the planet. No more exploitation. No more blah blah blah. No more whatever the f*** they are doing inside there.”

Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Dominika Lasota, and Mitzi Tan – four young climate activists – wrote an open letter to world leaders on day one of Cop26:

“‘Betrayal.’ That's how young people around the world are describing our governments' failure to cut carbon emissions. And it's no surprise.

“We are catastrophically far from the crucial goal of 1.5°C, and yet governments everywhere are still accelerating the crisis, spending billions on fossil fuels.

“This is not a drill. It's code red for the Earth. Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated -- a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide.” 

Joe Biden, US President:

“Let this be the start of a decade of transformative action that preserves our planet and raises the quality of life for people everywhere.

“We can do this, we just have to make a choice to do it. So, let’s get to work.

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“Those of us who are responsible for much of the deforestation and all the problems we have so far have an overwhelming obligation [to] nations who, in fact, are not there and have not done it.

“We have to help much more than we have thus far.” 

And on his predecessor, Donald Trump:

“I shouldn’t apologise, but I do apologise for the fact the United States, the last administration, pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us sort of behind the eight ball a little bit.”

Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister:

“We have all got to be pushed much harder much faster. 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, that is the reality.” 

Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, addressing the Cop26 climate summit:

“(The temperature rise limit of) 1.5C is what we need to stay alive – two degrees is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, for the people of Dominica and Fiji, for the people of Kenya and Mozambique – and yes, for the people of Samoa and Barbados.

“We do not want that dreaded death sentence and we’ve come here today to say: ‘Try harder, try harder.’ Because our people, the climate army, the world, the planet, needs our action now – not next year, not in the next decade.” 

Brazil’s Walelasoetxeige Paiter Bandeira Surui said: “Indigenous people are in the front line of the climate emergency, and we must be at the centre of the decisions happening here. We have ideas to postpone the end of the world.” 

Samoa’s Brianna Fruean said: “The real question is whether you have the political will to do the right thing, to wield the right words, and to follow it up with long-overdue action. Climate change can tear us apart. 

"Thanks to the constant co-operation and dialogue we are making good progress on addressing climate change.”