“We have made progress but we still have a lot to do,” said the president of the COP28 UN climate conference in Dubai, Sultan Al Jaber, after releasing a new draft compromise that was described as disappointing by NGOs and many countries.

“We still have many differences to bridge,” Al-Jaber admitted to the plenary, saying there was “no time to waste.”

“We will have to come to an outcome that respects the science and keeps the 1.5 degree Celsius target achievable,” he said on the eve of the official closing of the UN climate conference.

The country groups will now try to reach a compromise based on this plan before the deadline that Al-Jaber himself has set for tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11:00.

“We have a text and we should agree on the text. The time for discussions is coming to an end and this is not the time for hesitation. It is time to decide,” the Emirati stressed.

The president of COP28 today proposed an intermediate path to reducing energy produced by fossil fuels worldwide, much to the dismay of countries and NGOs who had expected a clear call for an “exit” from the oil, gas and coal that are responsible for global warming.

The new text mainly calls for “reducing both the consumption and production of energy from fossil fuels in a proper, methodical and fair way in order to achieve the goal of zero net emissions [ουδετερότητα άνθρακα] before, or around 2050, keeping up with the science.”

But it no longer mentions the word “exit” from energy produced by fossil fuels. And it now includes a whole wish list of the oil-exporting camp, such as the reference to carbon sequestration technologies that are required of them in order to continue extracting hydrocarbons.

On coal, the text calls for “rapid reductions in carbon generation without sequestration” but also for “limits on permits granted for new coal-fired power stations” without sequestration, which is in effect a retreat to in relation to the Glasgow COP two years ago where no blank check was given for new thermal power stations.

One paragraph of that 21-page draft also refers to “low-emission” technologies, including nuclear power, carbon capture and “low-carbon” hydrogen, “to enhance efforts to replace fossil-based energy fuels without carbon sequestration in energy systems”.

That wording echoes the joint Sunnylands Declaration signed in November by China and the United States. The top two in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (both of them produce 41%) avoided talking about an “exit” from energy produced by fossil fuels, but underlined that renewable energy sources (solar, wind, etc.) etc.) should gradually replace it.

“Our voices have not been heard” and the plan is “completely inadequate” on the issue of fossil fuel energy, complained Samoan minister Cedric Schuster, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis).

The text “represents a significant departure from previous versions,” said Harjit Singh, head of global political strategy at CAN, which represents more than 1,000 organizations and participates in COP proceedings as an observer. “It no longer includes an explicit formula for exiting fossil fuel energy.”

Andreas Ziber of mko 350.org, for his part, spoke of “weakened” proposals compared to previous ones.

“Countries committed to climate action must reject this weakened proposal and insist on transformative changes to make a meaningful impact on climate change,” he says.

Li Shuo, from the think tank Asia Society, notes that the text no longer includes different options but has a final form, unlike the three previous versions, which he says suggests that COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber is presenting a compromise of the take-it-or-leave-it type.

The plenary session is expected to start at 19:00 (local and Greek time).