At the halfway point of annual United Nations climate negotiations in Brazil, it appears the talks may do more than just focus on implementing past promises, as some observers had expected.

Several nations have pressed during the first week to be more ambitious. They want stronger commitments on cutting emissions, getting financial aid to countries hit hardest by climate change, and getting serious about phasing out fossil fuels.

Exactly how much consideration those matters get will be up to high-level ministers who take over the action during the second and final week of what's known as COP30.

“I would say that what’s at stake now is probably higher than the last several COPs because you’re looking at an ambition gap,″ said former Philippine negotiator Jasper Inventor, international program director at Greenpeace International.

“There’s a lot of expectation, there’s a lot of excitement here, but there’s also a lot of political signals that’s been sent by President (Luiz Inácio) Lula (da Silva).”

The last few COP end statements have made still unfulfilled pledges for rich countries to give money to poor nations to cope with climate change and the world to phase out of fossil fuels.

Key among those issues is the idea of telling nations to go back to the drawing board on what experts consider inadequate climate-fighting plans submitted this year.

In the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which is being celebrated here on its 10th anniversary, nations are supposed to have submitted climate-fighting, emissions-curbing plans every five years.

So far 116 of 193 countries have filed theirs this year, but what they promised isn’t much. United Nations and Climate Action Tracker, a group of scientists, calculate that these new pledges barely reduced future projections for Earth's warming.

Even if the world does all it promises, Earth would be about seven-tenths of a degree Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, the groups estimated.

So small island nations, led by Palau, asked that this conference confront the gap between what’s planned in national pledges and what’s needed to keep the world from hitting the temperature danger zone.

That's not on the agenda for these talks. Nor are specific details on how to fulfill last year’s pledge by rich nations to provide $300 billion annually in climate financial aid.

So when nations early on wanted to address these issues, COP President André Corrêa do Lago, a veteran Brazilian diplomat, set up special small confabs to try to decide if the controversial topics should be discussed.

On Saturday, the conference punted the issue to the incoming ministers.

AP Video by Teresa de Miguel

Produced by Julián Trejo Bax

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