Climate talks draft agreement expresses 'alarm and concern'

Governments are poised to express 'alarm and concern' about global warming already happening and encourage one another to end their use of coal, according to a draft released Wednesday of the final document expected at UN climate talks.

The early version of the document circulating at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland, also impresses on countries the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about half by 2030 even though pledges so far from governments don't add up to that frequently stated goal.

In a significant move, the draft urges countries to "accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels," but makes no explicit reference to ending the use of oil and gas. There has been a big push among developed nations to shut down coal-fired power plants, which are a major source of heat-trapping gases, but it remains a critical and cheap source of electricity for countries like China and India.

The draft doesn't yet include full agreements on the three major goals that the UN set going into the negotiations -- to the disappointment of some observers. Those goals are the one on slashing emissions that is mentioned, requiring rich nations to give poorer ones $100 billion in climate aid and ensuring that half of that money goes to adapting to worsening global warming.

The draft does provide insight, however, into the issues that need to be resolved in the last few days of the conference, which is scheduled to end Friday but may push past that deadline. But a lot of negotiating and decision-making is yet to come since whatever emerges from the meetings has to be unanimously approved by nearly 200 nations attending.