A new draft agreement drawn up for the United Nations' climate summit in Glasgow presses countries to be more ambitious in their plans to tackle global warming but also walks a fine line between the demands of developing and richer nations.
While retaining its core demand for countries to set tougher climate pledges next year, the draft uses weaker language than a previous draft text in asking nations to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
The new draft , which attempts to ensure the world will tackle global warming fast enough to stop it becoming catastrophic, is a balancing act - trying to take in the demands of both climate-vulnerable nations and large economies reliant on fossil fuels.
The retention of a pledge for countries to upgrade their climate targets in 2022 will be welcomed by poorer nations that want more action to tackle worsening floods and wildfires and rising sea levels.
But it was couched in weaker language than a previous text and failed to offer the rolling annual review that some developing countries have pushed for.
It also says the upgrade of pledges should take into account "different national circumstances", referring to the differences between rich and poor countries.
That could placate some developing countries, which say it is unfair to expect them to quit fossil fuels and cut emissions at the same speed as the rich countries whose emissions are largely responsible for causing climate change.
On fossil fuels, the draft included two words that dilute an earlier version, which had boldly stated that the world should pledge to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels in general.
But it would still be a first for any United Nations climate summit to have fossil fuels explicitly mentioned in a final agreement.
Now the text includes the word "unabated" before coal, and the phase-out of "inefficient" subsidies for fossil fuels. Unabated coal generation is where there is no technology in place to remove resulting carbon dioxide emissions.
Arab nations, many of which are big producers of oil and gas, had objected to the wording in the earlier draft.
The paragraph now reads: "(COP26) calls upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies and the adoption of policies for the transition towards low-emission energy systems, including by rapidly scaling up clean power generation and accelerating the phase-out of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.
Delegates in Glasgow from nearly 200 nations are charged with keeping the Paris Agreement temperature goals alive even as climate-driven disasters hit countries the world over.
The summit began with a bang as world leaders descended on Glasgow armed with a string of headline announcements, from a commitment to slash methane emissions to a plan to save the rainforests.
But progress has stalled in the underlying technical and now minister-level negotiations.
With one day left of scheduled talks, countries are hardly any closer to agreement over whether national emissions cutting plans must be ramped up in the short term, how climate action is reported, and how vulnerable nations are supported.
"The truth is that the atmosphere doesn't care about commitments," said Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate.
"It only cares about what we put into it or stop putting into it. Humanity will not be saved by promises."
Friday's draft text also included a request for countries to come back with more ambitious emissions cutting plans by next year - three years earlier than planned.
Host Britain says it wants COP26 to lead to commitments from countries to keep the 1.5C temperature cap goal of the Paris agreement within reach.
However, current national emissions cutting plans, all told, would lead to 2.7C of heating.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that countries' climate plans were "hollow" without commitments to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.
US-China joint climate action plan sparks hope
Negotiations received a shot in the arm Wednesday when the United States and China - the two largest emitters - unveiled a joint climate action plan.
Although it was light on detail, observers said the pact allayed concerns that frosty US-China relations entering into COP26 would derail the talks.
But trust levels between rich polluters and developing nations are low after developed countries failed to stump up the more than $100 billion-a-year they promised by 2020.
Finance more generally is holding up progress in Glasgow, with developing nations insisting on more money for adaptation that can help them brace for future climate shocks.
Developed nations meanwhile favour a greater push on emissions reductions, something countries yet to fully electrify their grids - and largely blameless for emissions - feel is unfair.
"Rich nations treat climate finance as charity or a favour to placate developing countries into signing a compromised package of decisions," Harjeet Singh, senior advisor at Climate Action Network International, told AFP.
"We are talking about saving lives and undoing an injustice to build a safe future for all."
Countries already battered by climate disasters such as record-breaking drought and flooding are demanding they be compensated separately for "loss and damage".
Organisers said the draft texts dedicated an "unprecedented" section to loss and damage, but vulnerable nations said it stopped far short of their expectations.
Other issues likely to delay an agreement in Glasgow include a long-simmering dispute over the rules governing carbon markets, and common reporting timeframes.
