Dispute over fossil fuel phaseout upsets U.N. climate talks, and overtime looks likely

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BELEM, Brazil — Several nations held firm Friday insisting this year’s U.N. climate talks explicitly cite the burning of fuels such as oil, gas and coal as causes of global warming, and the talks appeared certain to sprawl past a midnight deadline.

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, a top negotiator for Panama, said the decades-long United Nations process risks “becoming a clown show” over the omission. His nation was among 36 to object to a proposal from the conference president, André Corrêa do Lago of host Brazil, because it doesn’t provide an explicit road map for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, nor to strengthen climate-fighting plans submitted earlier this year.

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