Belém, Brazil, has hosted two weeks of climate negotiations, where the world's countries will try to agree on how to slow down global warming - which is mainly caused by human emissions.
But in the run-up, Friday being the official last day of the meeting, the question of phasing out fossil fuels has become a contentious issue.
Fossil fuels are not mentioned in the draft published early Friday morning, despite at least 29 countries threatening to block any agreement that does not address the issue in a letter, according to The Guardian . Sweden is among the countries that think the draft is too weak.
"We were the sender of the letter that Colombia initiated yesterday," Sweden's chief negotiator Mattias Frumerie told TT on Friday.
New draft expected
And at the UN climate summits, consensus is what counts, meaning that all countries need to agree. Therefore, a new draft has been expected during the day.
At 9:30 p.m. Swedish time on Friday, Mattias Frumerie tells TT that the Brazilian presidency has invited all groups to a new consultation.
I think the intention is to land something, but it may take a while before it's done, he says.
Oil nation Saudi Arabia is being singled out as the main obstacle to mentioning the phasing out of fossil fuels, along with India and Russia, the French delegation told AFP.
The positions thus appear to be locked, so the question is whether the countries can agree on a final document.
That is our focus, but it is clear that there are several elements that need to be added before we, from the EU's side, can think that it is good enough, says Frumerie.
Now a new draft must be produced and accepted or rejected. If everyone agrees, the text must then be translated into the six official UN languages before a decision can be made.
It is not on the map that it will be finished today, says Björn-Ola Linnér, professor of international climate policy at Linköping University who is on site in Belém to TT earlier on Friday.
Calls for cooperation
André Corrêa do Lago, chairman of the climate summit, called in a speech for cooperation to reach consensus and that "Everyone will lose" if we do not strengthen climate work.
–It was a strong speech that drew applause, but it also aroused negative reactions, says Björn-Ola Linnér.
Critics from Colombia, among others, argued that if consensus is reached on a watered-down proposal, it will lose its significance.
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said, according to AFP, that the draft was "unacceptable" and that the meeting risks ending without a new agreement.
Environmental organizations are also criticizing the draft. WWF climate expert Martin Wadmark is following the negotiations on site and is irritated.
"This is a great disappointment. The text proposals we saw before were significantly better, both in terms of ambition but also in terms of negotiations going forward," he says.
