Extract from ABC News
Global climate talks have run into overtime, with negotiators scrambling to reach a final agreement and China calling for countries to "decide on their own timetable" for reducing emissions.
Key points:
- The words of the final signed agreement between nations remains up in the air
- Small island nations pleaded for action as the negotiation deadline passed
- China called for countries to "decide on their own timetable" for reducing emissions
The two-week UN climate change conference saw thousands of delegates descend on Glasgow, with the aim of limiting the catastrophic effects of global warming.
But the scheduled program has come to an end and the wording of the final agreement remains up in the air.
It needs unanimous support from nearly 200 countries. But in one of the final sessions of the talks, the disparity in aspiration and desired actions from different countries was clear.
"Our safety, the safety of my children and yours hangs in the balance … it's time for us to level up," Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege said.
Tuvalu Climate Minister Seve Paeniu said climate changes was "an existential threat" during an emotive address to the summit that garnered widespread applause.
"Our land is fast disappearing," He said.
"Tuvalu is literally sinking."
The small island nation was in the global spotlight earlier this week when Foreign Minister Simon Kofe delivered a video address to the summit while standing knee-deep in seawater to show how low-lying Pacific nations were at the front line of climate change.
Delegates from the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kenya, Ghana and the US all pleaded for greater ambition in the final agreement in one of the last plenary talks at COP26.
Meanwhile, the message from China's climate negotiator struck a different tone.
"Let the parties decide on their own the roadmap and timetable for their national policies and actions," Zhao Yingmin said.
"Allow parties space and time in implementing their NDCs (nationally determined contributions)."
Mr Zhao called for the final conference pledge to deliver more on "adaptation, finance and capacity building".
The first draft COP 26 agreement was released earlier this week, but within days it was revised.
The second draft revealed watered-down commitments about phasing out fossil fuels and a softening of language around countries delivering new 2030 emission reductions targets within the next year.
It is understood Russia, Saudi Arabia, India and other countries have been lobbying for the changes around the language on coal and fossil fuels.
Mr Zhao told the plenary session the revised draft had "improvements compared to the previous one, and provided a good basis for our further discussions".
"We still think the current text should further strengthen the parts of adaptation, finance, technical and capacities building," he said.
The UK's COP26 president, Alok Sharma, said he was hopeful the final summit texts would be adopted and signed off later today despite the clear differences of opinion.
Island nations 'hold out' for more ambitious agreement
"The least-developed countries and the small island nations and particularly the brave people of Tuvalu, are basically holding out," Mark Maslin, a climate scientist at University College London, told the ABC.
Former negotiators told the ABC it was common for COP negotiations to go into overtime, with final agreements often delivered days late.
Organisers of the conference set out with a few clear goals, including global emissions reductions that would limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and for the planet to have net-zero emissions by 2050.
The wording around how often countries should revise their 2030 emissions reductions targets was also still be negotiated, and would be critical to long-term success, Mr Maslin said.
"We need to reduce global emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and then hit net zero about 2050," he said.
"Now, those countries' pledges don't come anywhere near that.
"We're looking at temperature changes of 2.4C to 2.8C by the end of the century, if there's no revisions."
While speaking on behalf of the Marshall Islands, Ms Stege said countries should revisit their 2030 aspirations annually in order to keep climate goals in reach.
Mr Maslin said the second draft was an improvement on the first document, and even if wording around fossil fuel use was revised it was still "absolutely brilliant" it was included.
"It leaves the door open that if countries want to support the poorest people in their country being able to afford fuel which comes from fossil fuels, they can still do so," he said.
Another key goal of the conference was securing around $130 billion per year in financing to limit the effects of climate change.
The issue of how any climate financing could be spent by developing nations is also thought to be a sticking point in the conference's final agreement.
Throughout the course of the summit there were major pledges to prevent deforestation around the world, to reduce methane emissions and to phase out the public funding and use of coal power.
There were several other smaller pledges around land management and phasing out fuel-powered cars and a surprise joint-statement from the US and China vowing to do more to reduce emissions.
But the promises came in a patchwork, with certain countries signing up to certain pledges, and none with unanimous support from the more than 200 countries.
"They're trying to actually make sure that perhaps our ambition isn't as large as we should have … and that's such a shame."
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