Doha -
UN talks on slowing the pace of destructive global warming ran deep into extra time on Saturday as host Qatar sought to break a days-old deadlock between rich and poor nations.
A stock-take meeting called for 10:00 am (0700 GMT) had not taken place nearly five hours later, with urgent huddles under way in corridors and meeting rooms to find consensus on technicalities standing in the way of a Doha deal.
The conference was scheduled to have closed on Friday.
Delegates must sign off on a new term for the greenhouse-gas curbing Kyoto Protocol as an interim measure to rein in climate change pending a new pact due to take effect in 2020.
But disagreement on funding for poor countries to deal with global warming and convert to planet-friendlier energy sources has hamstrung negotiators, with developed nations citing tough financial times.
There was also dispute on a demand by least developed countries and those most at risk of sea level rise that provision be made for the losses they suffer because of climate change Ä a phenomenon they blame on the West's polluting ways since the industrial era.
After a long night of haggling, conference chairman Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah of Qatar called tired negotiators to a plenary meeting at which he urged them to consider a set of compromise agreements.
“I believe that this is a package that we can all live with and which is also good for our planet and future generations,” he told the delegates from nearly 200 countries, including dozens of cabinet ministers.
“The time has come for the final push,” Attiyah said, giving the teams 90 minutes until 10:00 am to reconsider their positions.
“We have to close this in the next couple of hours.”
By 2:30 pm, there was still no sign of the plenary reconvening.
Developed nations were under pressure in Doha to show how they intend to keep a promise to raise climate funding for poorer nations to $100 billion (76 billion euros) per year by 2020 Ä up from a total of $30 billion in 2010-2012.
Developing countries say they need at least another $60 billion between now and 2015 - starting with $20 billion from next year - to deal with a climate change-induced rise in droughts, floods, rising sea levels and storms.
But the United States and European Union have refused to put concrete figures on the table for 2013-2020.
NGOs and delegates have expressed frustration at the pace of negotiations that coincided with a slew of fresh scientific warnings that the Earth faces a calamitous future of more frequent extreme weather events.
The UN is targeting a maximum temperature rise of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on pre-industrial levels that scientists believe would be manageable, but recent evidence warns the planet may be on the path to double that.
One of the key disputes in Doha was “hot air”, the name given to greenhouse gas emission quotas that countries were given under the first leg of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and did not use - some 13 billion tonnes in total.
The credits can be sold to nations battling to meet their own quotas, meaning that greenhouse gas levels decrease on paper but not in the atmosphere.
Poland and Russia emitted much less than their lenient limits, and insisted in Doha on being allowed to bank the difference beyond 2012 Ä a move most other parties vehemently oppose.
Agreement on hot air is key to delegates in Doha extending the life of the Kyoto pact, whose first leg expires at the end of this month.
The protocol is the world's only binding pact on curbing greenhouse gases, but locks in only developed nations and excludes major developing polluters such as China and India, as well as the United States, which refused to ratify it.
A new 2020 deal, due to be finalised by 2015, will include commitments for all the nations of the world.
Success in Doha is seen as key to smoothing the way to a 2020 pact. - Sapa-AFP