Bear Grylls used to be a climate sceptic, he has admitted, as he used to think the world was too big for humans to impact it.

       Speaking at the Cop26 climate conference, the presenter, survivalist and UK Chief Scout urged those in positions of power to use their influence for good.

       “When I started out in my career of filming and expeditions and travelling to all these weird places in the world, I was maybe a little bit of a climate sceptic.

       “I figured, the world is pretty resilient. How much impact can humankind have on a world that is so big and powerful? Fifteen years later, I've changed. I no longer ask those questions. I don't ask them because I know the answers. I've seen it, over and over again.

       “What I know now is very different, what I know now is that the world is hurting.

       “I've seen it in every corner of our great planet – extreme “one-off” weather freak conditions, totally unseasonal flooding, unprecedented wildfires, polluted broken oceans that are often, I've seen, starting to turn to swamps.

       “Thousands of remote Pacific islands covered, so you can't even see the ground, in plastic and rubbish. Habitats and wilderness starving.”

       Protesters marching through Glasgow on Friday included Greta Thunberg who called the event a “greenwash festival” with “empty words and promises”, adding that world leaders were “fighting to maintain business as usual”.

       An essence of outrage around the climate crisis, Mr Grylls said, was a good thing as long as it was channeled correctly.

       “Obviously, we don't want all the bad stuff, but an essence of outrage, an essence of the “no more blah, blah, blah” stuff is important, because it's the voice of experience – it's called righteous anger,” he said.