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 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 from con­fer­ence pres­i­dent An­dré Cor­rêa do La­go of host Brazil be­cause it doesn’t pro­vide an ex­plic­it guide map for the world to tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fu­els, nor strength­en­ing cli­mate-fight­ing plans sub­mit­ted ear­li­er this year.

Do La­go coun­tered by telling ne­go­tia­tors he thought they were “very close” to do­ing what they set out to do when they start­ed meet­ing a week ago.