Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
13 November 2021•Update: 14 November 2021
LONDON
The COP26 discussions on a final deal will continue into Saturday afternoon, president Alok Sharma said late Friday.
The historic UN Climate Change Summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow was expected to end with a final declaration by all parties Friday.
But talks are still going on after a draft deal text was objected by several countries.
Most of the countries and observers, including NGOs, would like to see in the declaration the main aim of keeping the 2015 Paris Agreement result -- to lay out concrete steps to the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) global warming, in meaningful words.
The revised documents for the agreements to be reached will be issued overnight and will be released at around 0800 GMT Saturday.
The final plenary will be held Saturday afternoon to see the final decision adopted by all countries before the summit concludes.
The last-day disagreement came because of changes to the wording in the final draft declaration.
A previous version of the document calls on all countries to "accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel."
However; the final draft said countries should accelerate "the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels."
Some countries, including Saudi Arabia, India and Russia have voiced concerns about the fossil fuel phase-out wording in the document.
The COP26, seen as the last hope to keep 1.5 degree Celsius target alive by many, has continued in Glasgow since Nov. 1.
The first two days saw world leaders convening to discuss the future steps for the planet.
“The longer we delay taking action, the worse the situation and the greater the consequences when we are forced to take action,” hosting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on opening day.
COP26 saw numerous panels, meetings and events planned on the sidelines of the conference, all aimed at finding solutions to reduce global warming by keeping it at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
