U.N. climate director Simon Stiell urged nations to cooperate in order to secure a final agreement for the summit, where they were debating whether to demand an end to fossil fuels, as the COP28 climate talks approached their critical point on Monday.

While acknowledging that some conflicts had been resolved over the past day, Stiell issued a warning, saying that “each step back from the highest ambition will cost countless millions of lives”.

On Monday, nations present at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai awaited the release of a fresh draft text of the anticipated final agreement by the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the COP28 Presidency.

“Clear the unnecessary tactical blockades out of the way. And there have been many along this journey,” Stiell said at a press conference Monday morning.

How aggressively countries were willing to tackle climate change and how much resources and support they would be willing to commit to accomplish that goal, he added, were two major problems that remained unsettled.

The United States, the European Union, and small island states are among the coalition of more than 80 countries who are attempting to get an agreement that contains language to “phase out” fossil fuels—a feat that has not been accomplished in the last 30 years of U.N. summits.

There is going to be some fierce resistance.

Saudi Arabia, the de facto chairman of the OPEC oil producers’ organisation, is one of the primary opponents to a deal to phase out fossil fuels, according to negotiators and observers within the COP28 discussions who spoke with Reuters.

A request for comment on Monday morning was met with silence from the Saudi Arabian administration.

At U.N. climate summits, agreements must be approved by the approximately 200 participating nations by consensus.

Sultan al-Jaber, the president of COP28, has given negotiators until Tuesday to reach a consensus on what would be the first agreement in history to gradually phase out the use of fossil fuels, the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

U.N. Secretary General Antontio Guterres returned to the meeting on Sunday afternoon as the COP28 summit entered its final stages.

“I am here to renew my urgent appeal to leaders: Recommit to the 1.5°C warming limit. End the fossil fuel age. Deliver climate justice,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Speaking on Sunday to a group of ministers and negotiators, a representative of Saudi Arabia’s delegation stated that the goal of a COP28 agreement should be to reduce emissions rather than select specific energy sources.

“We have raised our consistent concerns over the attempts to attack energy sources instead of emissions,” the representative said.

This stance is consistent with a request made by the oil producers’ organisation, OPEC, in a letter obtained by Reuters earlier in the COP28 meeting, asking its members to reject any wording that specifically singles out fossil fuels.

Burning coal, oil, and gas continues to be the primary global energy source, driving the economies of many countries even though greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are by far the primary driver of climate change.

Even though renewable energy is expanding quickly, fossil fuels still provide around 80% of the energy used worldwide.

Other OPEC and OPEC+ nations, such as Russia, Iraq, and Iran, have reportedly resisted attempts to include a phase-out of fossil fuels in the COP28 agreement, according to negotiators speaking to Reuters.

The environment minister for Singapore, Grace Fu, stated on Monday that although there had been some progress in the negotiations, there was still “significant” work to be done.

“We have more or less narrowed down the crucial and critical issues. Having said that, there are still some gaps to finding the solution,” Fu told reporters on the COP28 sidelines.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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