Sparks fly over irreparable loss and damage from climate change and carbon offsets

Sparks flew at the Glasgow talks today over how to pay for the loss and damage that climate change inflicts on developing nations and on how high polluting countries could pay other countries to offset their emissions.

An open session for climate envoys to speak out publicly about the new version of the Glasgow agreement was delayed as smaller huddles broke out on the meeting room floor and delegates failed to take their seats.

Rainforest nations claimed they had been overlooked in talks about how rich countries could pay other countries to cut emissions or protect forests, in lieu of taking more dramatic climate action at home.

The debate about how to fund loss and damage came to a head after proposals for a fund disappeared from the third draft of the pact, being replaced with plans for a "dialogue" instead.

But when the plenary re-opened, three hours after it was due start, Guinea said on behalf of the G77 group of developing nations it would support the new loss and damage plans.

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Although the "dialogue" is "very far from the concrete call for loss and damage facility" the group had called for, in the "spirit of compromise" it is willing to live with it, said Guinea environment minister Ahmadou Sebory Toure.

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0:32 John Kerry told Sky News' Hannah Thomas-Peter that the agreement is

The Least Developed Countries group of 46 nations told Sky News it was " extremely [disappointed]" but also willing to move forward with the new plans.

Mohammed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, said the very reason vulnerable countries call for such a funding mechanism is: "We failed to mitigate enough.

"We failed to provide meaningful support to the vulnerable countries to adapt. And now we are in a world where the residual effects of climate change will mean some of those will exceed our adaptation limits," said Mr Adow.

The UK as host is desperately trying to bring consensus among the almost 200 nations involved before final agreements can be published. COP president Alok Sharma reiterated a warning that the talks must wrap up by the end of the day, already well into overtime.

The third draft retained commitments to phase out unabated coal power and certain fossil fuel subsidies, despite fierce resistance from big fossil fuel economies like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

The term "fossil fuel" didn't even make it through to the text of the landmark Paris Agreement signed at COP21 in 2015, and today even campaigning body Greenpeace International hailed a "breakthrough" on that front.

But India, the second largest consumer of coal after China, today sought to strip the precise phrase from of the text.

Its environment minister Bhupender Yadav blamed "unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns" in rich countries for causing global warming, saying developing countries were "entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels."

A crucial request that countries supercharge their 2030 emissions-cutting plans by the end of next year has also made it through, despite coded warnings from China and Saudi Arabia they might put up a fight.

And a promise to double funding for developing countries to adapt to a changed climate - an underfunded area of climate finance - has also come out broadly unscathed, for now.

On Friday the prime minister said the UK was moving "heaven and earth" to get everyone to see the vital importance of an agreement to keep the prospect of limiting warming to 1.5C alive.

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1:04 COP talks drag on: 'I have my sleeping bag'

In the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries committed to limit temperature rises to "well below" 2C and try to limit them to 1.5C to avoid the most dangerous impacts of storms, droughts, crop failures, floods and disease.

Limiting global heating to 1.5C requires global emissions to be cut by 45% by 2030, and to zero overall by mid-century. But an independent assessment this week predicted the world was on track for around 2.4C of warming.

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, climate correspondent

There is genuine surprise this morning that language on fossil fuels remains in the Glasgow text, although softened. That’s despite a huge effort from the Saudis and Russians to remove it.

There is relief that the request for all countries to update their NDCs by end of 2022 remains, as well as the urge to at least double funding for adaptation finance,

But there is ongoing frustration over lack of progress on establishing a financial mechanism to compensate countries for loss and damage associated with climate change, and still some issues with establishing a global carbon market.

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