COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber speaks during a plenary stocktaking session at the COP28 UN Climate Summit, Dec 11, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (PHOTO / AP)

DUBAI - The COP28 climate summit was hurtling towards overtime early on Tuesday, with negotiators awaiting a new draft deal after many countries criticized a previous version as too weak because it omitted a "phase-out" of fossil fuels.

Countries gathered at the Dubai summit are attempting to agree on a global plan of action to limit climate change fast enough to avert more disastrous flooding, fatal heat and irreversible changes to the world's ecosystems.

A draft of a final deal, published on Monday by the United Arab Emirates, which holds the presidency of the summit, suggested eight options countries "could" take to cut emissions.

One was "reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050".

That would be the first time in history that a UN climate summit has mentioned reducing use of all "fossil fuels".

But the move fell short of the "phase-out" of coal, oil and gas demanded by many nations, or the emphasis on cutting their use this decade, which scientists say is necessary to avoid climate change escalating.

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An officer stands during a plenary stocktaking session at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Dec 11, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (PHOTO / AP)

Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels still produce about 80 percent of the world's energy

Negotiators were waiting for a new text on Tuesday, when the conference was set to close at 0700 GMT, although delegates said the deadline was no longer feasible. COP summits rarely finish on schedule.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.

"The vast majority of countries want a stronger text - phase down with a view to a long-term phase-out, or transition away from fossil fuels," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters.

Brazil wants a stronger text on ditching fossil fuels, but one that makes clear rich and poor nations could do so in different timeframes, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.

"One of the shortcomings is it does not establish efforts to phase out fossil fuels," Silva told reporters about the draft deal.

Representatives of small island nations said they would not approve a deal that was a "death warrant" for vulnerable countries hit hardest by rising sea levels.

"We will not go silently to our watery graves," said John Silk, the head of the Marshall Islands' delegation.

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Licypriya Kangujam protests against the use of fossil fuels during an event at the COP28 UN Climate Summit, Dec 11, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (PHOTO /AP)

Deals at UN climate summits must be passed by consensus among the nearly 200 countries present. Then it is up to individual countries to deliver the globally agreed deal, through national policies and investments.

For oil-producing nations, a global deal at COP28 to ditch fossil fuels could signal a political willingness by other nations to slash their use of the lucrative products on which fuel-producing economies rely.

Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels still produce about 80 percent of the world's energy.