A fresh draft of the possible deal at the Cop26 climate talks appears to have softened its push to curb fossil fuels.
The latest proposal, released this morning, calls on countries to accelerate the “phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.
However, the previous draft of the agreement had called for countries to accelerate the “phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels”.
The reference to fossil fuels was a first for a UN decision document of this type but it may not survive to the final text.
It comes as crunch talks look set to run over this evening on the final day of the climate change conference in Glasgow.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would not bet “lots of money” on Friday being the last day of the summit.
The latest draft has strengthened its language on getting governments to urgently tackle climate change.
It calls on countries to “revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets” by the end of 2022 to align with global goals to limit temperature rises to “well below” 2C and try to limit them to 1.5C.
It also asks countries to strengthen their support for poorer countries hit hardest by global warming.
It has given a date of 2025 for when developed countries should double the provision of finance to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
Any deal must be agreed by all countries at the meeting.
