Jake Spring and Kate Abnett

GLASGOW, (Reuters) – Negotiators from the U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow will be negotiating on Friday about how to prevent global warming becoming catastrophic.

Nearly 200 representatives of the world’s countries gathered at the summit have not reached an agreement after nearly two weeks. These disagreements range from whether rich nations should pay for poorer nations who suffer the consequences of climate-driven disasters, to the frequency with which nations must update their emissions pledges.

Alok Sharma from Britain, the president of the COP26 summit said that there is more to do.

The COP26 conference was founded with a central goal in mind: Keep alive the Paris Agreement’s 2015 aspirational goal to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), above preindustrial levels, and prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Researchers warn that despite countries’ current commitments to reduce emissions in the next decade, global warming will continue at levels far above this limit. This could lead to catastrophic sea-level rises, flooding, 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 1.5C goal within reach.

A draft of the COP26 agreement circulated this week would, among other things, force countries to increase their climate targets by 2022. This is something that climate-vulnerable states hope can be strengthened into annual reviews to keep the world on the right track.

CONSTANT PROCESS

“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.

“Action is required this decade. 2030 feels like a cliff’s edge and we are running towards it,” said Nicolas Galarza, Colombia’s vice-minister for the environment.

Senior US official stated that the largest economy in the world supported the strengthening of Paris targets, but did not agree with COP26’s requirement for yearly pledge reviews.

Current law requires that countries review their pledges at least every five year.

The language used in the COP26 Conclusions to phase out fossil fuel subsidies is also being negotiated by negotiators. This was something that many Arab countries – including large producers of fossil fuels – warned against.

Frans Timmermans, chief of European Union’s climate policy, stated on Thursday that the removal of that phrase “would be an extremely very bad sign”.

The talks are still dominated by questions of finance. Developing countries want tougher rules for rich countries to make sure that they offer more money to poor countries to adapt to climate change.

Ministers also seek to finalize the controversial rules necessary for the Paris Agreement’s implementation. This will require agreement on decades-old issues over transparency and carbon markets.

Nearly 200 of these countries have signed the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Diplomats worked together to finalize the Paris rules on Thursday night while their counterparts in the negotiating room debated other points.