The COP28 climate summit is running over time as negotiators work on a new draft deal after many countries slammed the first version as too weak, with no mention of a “phase-out” of fossil fuels.

COP28 director-general Majid Al Suwaidi said the first draft, released on Monday after nearly two weeks of talks, was meant to draw parties into the open and “spark conversations” as they aim to agree on a final deal by the summit’s end.

“By releasing our first draft of the text, we got parties to come to us quickly with those red lines,” he told reporters.

Negotiators from the nearly 200 countries at the Dubai summit are attempting to agree on a global plan of action to limit climate change fast enough to avert more disastrous flooding, fatal heat and irreversible changes to the world’s ecosystems.

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Al Suwaidi said the COP28 presidency, currently held by the United Arab Emirates, was aiming for a “historic” result that included mentioning fossil fuels – but that it was up to countries to agree.

Deals at UN climate summits must be passed by consensus. Then it is up to individual countries to deliver on the deal, through national policies and investments.

“At this COP we are trying to do something that has never been done before, something historic … Part of this is to include fossil fuels in the text. If we can, that would be historic,” he said.

The draft released on Monday touched off a firestorm of discussions that ran overnight into early Tuesday.

The text had suggested eight options countries “could” take to cut emissions.

One was “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050”.

That would be the first time in history that a UN climate summit has mentioned reducing use of all “fossil fuels”.

But the move fell short of the “phase-out” of coal, oil and gas demanded by many nations, or the emphasis on cutting their use this decade, which scientists say must happen to avoid climate change escalating.

The draft was also criticised as too weak by participants such as Australia, Canada, Chile, the European Union, Norway and the US, among the 100-strong group demanding a firm commitment to wean the world off coal, oil and gas.

Pacific Island nations argued the text amounted to a death certificate for them.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.

It was unclear if China, the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, supported Monday’s draft.

The country’s veteran climate change envoy, Xie Zhenhua, said progress was being made in the talks, but it was “hard to say” if agreement could be reached by the end of Tuesday.

Brazil wants a stronger text on ditching fossil fuels, but one that makes clear that rich and poor nations should do so on different time frames, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.

Sources familiar with the discussions said the UAE’s COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber had faced pressure from Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the OPEC oil producers’ group to which UAE belongs, to drop any mention of fossil fuels – which he did not do.

Negotiators and observers in the COP28 talks told Reuters that while Saudi Arabia has been the strongest opponent, other OPEC and OPEC+ members, including Iran, Iraq and Russia, have also resisted a fossil fuel phase-out in the deal.

Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels still produce about 80 per cent of the world’s energy.

-Reuters