Nations at odds over how to keep 1.5 C goal alive as UN climate negotiations enter final day

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Negotiators at the UNclimate summit in Glasgow were locking horns on Friday for what is scheduled to be the final day of bargaining over how to stop global warming from becoming catastrophic.

After nearly two weeks of talks, the almost 200 countries represented at the summit remain at odds over a range of issues from how rich nations should compensate poor ones for damage caused by climate-driven disasters to how often nations should be required to update their emissions pledges.

The Conference of Parties (COP) meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in the early 1990s, and subsequent climate agreements.

A new draftpublished on Friday morning weakened the language used in previous texts to address the phasing out of fossil fuels.

European Union climate policy chief Frans Timmermans had said on Thursday that removing that language "would be an extremely, extremely bad signal."

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The conference set out with a core aim: to keep alive the 2015 Paris Agreement's aspirational target to cap global warming at 1.5 Cabove preindustrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Hopes for ever-more ambitious targets

But under countries' current pledges to cut emissions this decade, researchers say the world would hit levels of global warming far beyond that limit, unleashing catastrophic sea level rises, floods and droughts.

While there's little hope that new promises will appear in the final day of talks to bridge that gap, negotiators are attempting to impose new requirements that could force countries to hike their pledges in future, hopefully fast enough to keep the 1.5 C goal within reach.

A draft of the COP26 deal circulated earlier this week, for example, would force countries to upgrade their climate targets in 2022, something climate-vulnerable nations hope they can strengthen into forced annual reviews to ensure the globe remains on track.

"Glasgow must be the moment when ambition-raising becomes a constant process at every COP, and this year's COP decision must mandate annual ambition-raising platforms until 2025 to ensure that," said Mohamed Nasheed, parliamentary speaker and former president of the Maldives and ambassador for the Climate Vulnerable Forum group of 48 countries.

2030 'a cliff's edge'

"Action is needed this very decade. 2030 feels like a cliff's edge and we are running towards it," said Nicolas Galarza, Colombia's vice-minister for the environment.

A senior United States official said the world's biggest economy supported strengthening targets to meet the Paris goals but could not support a requirement in the COP26 deal for yearly reviews of pledges.

At the moment, countries are required to revisit their pledges every five years.

Final deal requires unanimous consent

Questions of finance continue to loom over the talks, with developing countries pushing for tougher rules to ensure that rich countries, whose historical emissions are largely responsible for heating up the planet, offer more cash to help the poorest nations adapt to climate impacts.

Ministers are also attempting to finish the contentious rules that will put the Paris agreement into practice, requiring agreement on years-old disputes over carbon markets and transparency.

A final deal will require the unanimous consent of the nearly 200 countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement.