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 the issue of phasing out fossil fuels is a sensitive one. Although the words managed to make it into the final document at the climate summit in Dubai two years ago, it seems difficult to get them in this year.
The words are not mentioned in the published draft, despite at least 29 countries threatening in a letter to block any agreement that does not address the issue, according to The Guardian .
"We were the sender of the letter that Colombia initiated yesterday," Sweden's chief negotiator Mattias Frumerie told TT on Friday, when the negotiations are scheduled to conclude.
And at the UN climate summits, consensus is what matters, meaning that all countries need to agree.
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.
Calls for cooperation
On Friday, André Corrêa do Lago, chairman of the climate summit, gave a speech in which he appealed for cooperation and to try to reach consensus.
–It was a strong speech, but it also aroused negative reactions, says Björn-Ola Linnér, professor of international climate policy at Linköping University who is on site in Belém.
Critics from Colombia, among others, argued that if consensus is reached on a watered-down proposal, it loses its significance.
New draft pending
Negotiations will continue on Friday, and the next step is a new draft that the countries will try to agree on. This will then be translated into the six official UN languages before a decision can be made.
I don't think anything will be ready before Saturday, says Björn-Ola Linnér.
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.
