A deadline to strike an agreement on climate change has been missed as talks at Cop26 continue into the night.

Senior negotiator and Grenada climate minister Simon Stiell joked he had ‘brought his sleeping bag’ as efforts to reach a deal on averting a disaster went into overtime.

The international climate conference was supposed to end by 6pm on Friday.

Key sticking points include subsidies for coal and other fossil fuels, and financial help to poorer nations.

Diplomats from small island nations threatened by rising sea levels said their land was fast disappearing.

A range of countries called for stronger action on phasing out fossil fuels after a draft agreement released early on Friday included watered down commitments to end the use of coal and other fossil fuels.

There were warnings that limiting temperature rises to 1.5C, beyond which the worst impacts of climate change will be felt, was a ‘matter of life and death’.

While visiting a vaccination centre in Sidcup, south-east London, the Prime Minister said the UK hosts of Cop26 were moving ‘heaven and earth’ to get everyone to see the vital importance of agreement at the talks.

He voiced support for calls from the poorer nations, saying: ‘We do need to see the cash on the table to help the developing world to make the necessary changes.

‘That’s what needs to happen in the next few hours.

‘People need to see that there’s enough cash to make a start, and there’s enough commitment to make a start.

‘And that if they can have the courage to do this deal, to agree the cover decision that’s on the table today then we will have a road map that will enable us to go forward and start to remove the threat of anthropogenic climate change.

‘We won’t clinch it all at Cop but we can start.’

Scientists say that limiting warming to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels will protect us from the worst impacts of climate change.

It is a key part of the Paris agreement that most countries signed up to.

In the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries committed to limit temperature rises to ‘well below’ 2C and try to limit them to 1.5C to avoid the most dangerous impacts of storms, droughts, crop failures, floods and disease.

Scientists have warned that keeping temperature rises to 1.5C requires global emissions to be cut by 45% by 2030, and to zero overall by mid-century.

But despite the promises made at COP26 so far, the planet is still heading for 2.4C of warming above pre-industrial levels, according to a report by Climate Action Tracker.

Countries were required to update their action plans for cutting emissions by 2030 in the run-up to Glasgow, but the latest pledges leave the world well off track to meet the goal.

Therefore, countries are under pressure to come up with a deal in Glasgow that will see them rapidly increase their ambition for emission cuts in the next 10 years to stop the 1.5C goal slipping out of reach.

The draft agreement published today ‘requests’ countries to revisit and strengthen their plans for 2030 within the next year in line with the Paris temperature goal – seen as stronger language than the first draft which ‘urges’ countries to do so.

But critics say the latest version has weakened language on fossil fuels.

The first draft called for countries ‘to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels’.

In a new draft produced on Friday morning, that changed to ‘accelerating the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels’.

The new draft also includes a date of 2025 for developed countries to double the share of finance that is going to help poorer and more vulnerable nations adapt to the impacts of climate change that they have done least to cause.

There are also drafts to finalise the ‘Paris rulebook’, including on creating carbon markets and delivering transparency to help assess what countries are doing, to make the Paris climate accord operational and effective.

In the afternoon plenary, dozens of countries, including some representing wider groups of nations, spoke out about the drafts on the table.

Kenya’s representative said 1.5C was ‘not just a statistic, it is a matter of life and death’, while US climate envoy John Kerry said the world cannot abandon a target to limit global warming to 1.5C as he described spending money on fossil fuel subsidies as ‘insanity’.

EU executive vice president Frans Timmermans said: ‘1.5C is about avoiding a future for our children and grandchildren that is unliveable’.

China indicated it would be willing to support a Cop26 agreement but expressed disappointment about a lack of details on how to achieve the 100 billion dollar a year climate finance pledge for poorer nations.

Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has called for developed countries to deliver on the long-promised money – which was due to be achieved by 2020 but will not be delivered until 2022 at the earliest – in order to rebuild an alliance between developed and vulnerable countries to push for action.

At the meeting of countries, Cop26 President Alok Sharma urged negotiators to put in a final injection of can-do spirit, and to deliver on the high ambition set by world leaders at the start of the summit.

The talks are expected to go into Saturday afternoon, with new versions of texts set to be published in the morning and countries due to come back to another meeting later in the day.

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