Environmentalist Chris Packham has said everyone must “play a proactive role” to protect the world’s wildlife and nature.

The TV naturalist called for people to come together to make a difference in the fight against climate change, saying: “Connective empowerment, that is where I think our species’ greatest strength lies.”

Speaking from the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, he said: “We can’t rely on our parents if we’re children; we can’t rely on our families if we’re adults; we can’t rely on our communities or our countries; we’ve all got to play a proactive role in this.”

He added it was “beyond desperately sad” that some species had been “pushed too far”, but he was not pessimistic about the future as the world has a “tool kit full of the right solutions”.

He added: “There are still plenty of species still on the brink that we can pull back if we just get on with some proper conservation.”

The television presenter said he was heartened by the frustrated activists he had met at Cop26 fringe events, who were “disappointed, frustrated, angry but determined to solve this problem”.

He said he considered the Cop26 event to be “one of the last stands we are taking”, claiming that if there were significant failures following the conference, it “won’t be long before our decision makers are held to account by citizens of planet Earth”.

The activist warned that Cop26 was not just about “these delegates and their negotiations – it’s about all of us”.