Negotiators at United Nations talks in Peru have reached a deal which sets the stage for a global climate pact to be made next year in Paris.
The two-week meeting of representatives from more than 190 nations was due to close in Lima on Friday, but had gone into overtime due to disputes that arose in the opening days.
After late-night wrangling, delegates early on Sunday agreed on a format for national pledges to cut greenhouse gases, which is the heart of the planned Paris pact.
However, it weakened language on the content of the pledges, saying they "may" instead of "shall" include quantifiable information showing how nations intend to meet their emissions targets.
"As a text it's not perfect, but it includes the positions of the parties," said Peru's environment minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal.
The original goal of the talks had been to reach agreement on what should go into the promises countries made in the global climate pact expected in Paris.
The Lima agreement was adopted hours after a previous draft was rejected by developing countries who said wealthy nations were trying to shirk their responsibilities on global warming.
The four-page document - dubbed the Lima Call for Climate Action - asks countries to submit plans to tackle global warming early in 2015 to form the basis of the Paris agreement.
"I think it's definitely watered down from what we expected," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Sam Smith, chief of climate policy for the environmental group WWF, said: "The text went from weak to weaker to weakest and it's very weak indeed."
Sealed in 2015 and taking effect by 2020, the Paris pact aims see all nations bound into the same category for cutting the carbon gases that drive climate change.
It wants to limit global warming to no more than 2C over pre-industrial levels.
Developed countries had wanted the pledges to focus on greenhouse emissions cuts, while developing nations wanted to see commitments of financial support to absorb the effects of climate change, which the UN estimates will amount to at least $200bn annually by 2050.
Some small island states at risk of being flooded by rising seas also complained the draft made no mention of a "loss and damage" mechanism agreed on in last year's UN talks in Poland.
"We need a permanent arrangement to help the poorest of the world," said Ian Fry, negotiator for the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu.
Meanwhile, top carbon polluter China and other major developing countries opposed plans for a review process that would allow the pledges to be compared against one another before the Paris summit.
Though negotiating tactics always play a role, virtually all disputes in the UN talks reflected the wider issue of how to divide the burden of fixing global warming that scientists say results from human activity, primarily the burning of oil, coal and natural gas.
Historically, Western nations are the biggest emitters. Currently, however, most CO2 emissions are coming from developing countries as they grow their economies and lift millions of people out of poverty.
According to the UN's scientific panel on climate change, the world can pump out no more than about 1 trillion tons of carbon to have a likely chance of avoiding dangerous levels of warming.
It has already spent more than half of that carbon budget as emissions continue to rise, driven by growth in China and other emerging economies.
Scientific reports say climate impacts are already happening and include rising sea levels, intensifying heat waves and shifts in weather patterns causing floods and droughts.
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