A new draft agreement proposed on Monday by the Emirati presidency of the UN climate talks advocated for reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels but no longer mentioned a "phase-out".
The text prepared under COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the UAE's national oil company, was released on the eve of the final day of the annual climate negotiations in Dubai.
The document calls for reducing the consumption and production of fossil fuels in "a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science".
A previous draft reached on Friday included the word "phase-out" of fossil fuels, which climate campaigners, low-lying island states and the European Union have been pushing for.
Scientists say the world must ditch fossil fuels -- oil, gas and coal -- which are responsible for the bulk of heat-trapping greenhouse emissions, for the world to meet the increasingly elusive goal of limiting the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the head of the OPEC oil cartel have opposed language that would target fossil fuels in any COP28 deal.
"The COP28 presidency has been clear from the beginning about our ambitions," a COP28 spokesperson said.
"This text reflects those ambitions and is a huge step forward.
"Now it is in the hands of the parties (national governments), who we trust to do what is best for humanity and the planet," the spokesperson added.
NGOs, however, slammed the draft as a major step backwards.
The document includes the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030.
It also calls for accelerating the deployment of zero and low-emissions technologies, including renewables, nuclear power, hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage technologies "so as to enhance efforts towards substitution of unabated fossil fuels in energy systems".
That sentence borrows some of the language from a joint climate statement released by the United States and China, the world's two biggest emitters, last month.
The draft also calls for "accelerating and substantially reducing non-CO2 emissions, including, in particular, methane emissions globally by 2030".
It also says "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies must be phased out.