QUOTES-'Holding on by our fingernails' - what they are saying at U.N. climate talks

COP26, a U.N. conference https://www.reuters.com/business/cop critical to averting the most disastrous effects of climate change, is running for the first two weeks of November. As delegates consider the latest draft https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/pressure-mounts-un-climate-negotiations-enter-final-day-2021-11-12 of the COP26 decision on Friday, Nov. 12, the last scheduled day of talks, here are some quotes from participants and observers:

GRENADA CLIMATE MINISTER SIMON STIELL "I believe if we leave Glasgow with the principles that are outlined - the key tenets of the text as it stands now - we can say, I believe, we got the most that we can get out of this COP."

"If the text that is currently on the table withstands the battering that it may get - yes, we are holding on by our fingernails," when asked whether COP26 would keep the goal alive of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). MARSHALL ISLANDS CLIMATE ENVOY TINA STEGE

"Loss and damage is too central for us to settle for workshops. We must strengthen action on loss and damage," she said, referring to calls for action to mitigate the loss and damage caused by climate change. BOB WARD, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

"The call for countries to phase-out unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies is very important and historic. Unabated coal power releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and all subsidies for fossil fuels are inefficient." VANESSA PEREZ-CIRERA, WWF GLOBAL DEPUTY LEAD

"The revised draft has gone backwards in key areas. In the face of the climate emergency, we had considered the previous text the absolute floor and expected it to be stronger and more concrete in the crucial areas." NOTE ON A WINDSCREEN OF A MERCEDES SUV PARKED IN GLASGOW

"ATTENTION: Climate Violation. Your SUV contributes to the second biggest cause of carbon emissions rise in the last decade. That's why we have disarmed your car by deflating one or more of its tyres." "Action is required from you: Go small, Go public transport."

GREENPEACE "It could be better, it should be better, and we have one day left to make it a lot, lot better. Right now the fingerprints of fossil fuel interests are still on the text and this is not the breakthrough deal that people hoped for in Glasgow."

"Negotiators in Glasgow simply have to seize the moment and agree something historic, but they need to isolate the governments who've come here to wreck progress and instead listen to the calls of youth and vulnerable nations." HELEN MOUNTFORD, VICE PRESIDENT, WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE.

"This is a stronger and more balanced text than what we had two days ago." "We need to see what stands, what holds and how it looks in the end, but at the moment it's looking in a positive direction."

MOHAMED NASHEED, FORMER MALDIVES PRESIDENT AND AMBASSADOR FOR THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM "Glasgow must be the moment when ambition-raising becomes a constant process at every COP, and this year's COP decision must mandate annual ambition-raising platforms until 2025 to ensure that."

NICOLAS GALARZA, COLOMBIA'S VICE-MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. "Action is needed this very decade. 2030 feels like a cliff's edge and we are running towards it." (Compiled by Edmund Blair; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Barbara Lewis)

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