By SETH BORENSTEIN, MELINA WALLING and ANTON L. DELGADO, Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Several nations and environmental groups on Friday slammed proposals in the final stages of this year’s U.N. climate talks for failing to explicitly mention the cause of global warming — the burning of fuels such as oil, gas and coal — with one top negotiator warning the talks are on “the verge of collapse.”

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, a top negotiator for Panama, said the decades-long United Nations process risks “becoming a clown show” for the omission. His nation was among 36 to object to a proposal drafted by conference president André Corrêa do Lago of host Brazil.

Do Lago countered by telling negotiators he thought the negotiators “are very close” to doing what they set out to do when

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