Climate negotiators struggled to reach an agreement at the UN COP27 in Egypt on Saturday after high-stakes talks lasted well into the night, with key sticking points over funding for countries hit by climate disasters and ambition in tackling global warming were plagued.

The meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was dominated by the contentious issue of climate damage and loss funds to help developing countries deal with the impacts of increasingly intense and costly floods, heat waves and droughts.

Wealthy nations, long reluctant to discuss the issue for fear of liability, have accepted that vulnerable nations face devastating consequences.

But there are disagreements over who pays and which countries are considered particularly affected.

While nations struggled to find common ground, the UK and several other countries circulated new proposals late on Friday to break the lockdown.

The issue was among a chilling list of prominent bones of contention at the COP27 talks, where representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered with the goal of driving forward action on climate change as the world faces a worsening onslaught of extreme weather.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who chairs the COP27 talks, told delegates on Friday – the day the talks were supposed to officially end – that negotiations would start on Saturday.

“I remain concerned about the number of unanswered questions,” he said.

Delegates seek agreement on emissions-cutting ambitions and reaffirm the goal of limiting average warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is a safer guard rail to avoid the most dangerous impacts.

Rich countries are also under pressure to finally meet their pledges to allocate $100 billion a year to help developing countries green their economies and adapt to future impacts.

For many vulnerable countries, casualties and damage are the dominant theme of the conference, with some saying the meeting’s success depends on establishing a special fund at the talks in Egypt.

Wealthier nations, previously shying away from fear of unlimited liability on the issue, have accepted that countries caught in the crosshairs of increasingly destructive climate-related disasters need financial assistance, but have called for a broader group of donors – and prioritized them most climate-prone countries as recipients.

The G77 and China bloc of 134 developing countries launched an opening game on losses and damages this week, with a proposal to set up a fund at COP27, with operational details to be agreed later.

A European Union compromise response proposed late Thursday proposed a fund specifically for the most vulnerable nations, saying the money should come from a “broad donor base” – code for countries like China and Saudi Arabia who have gotten richer since 1992 listed as developing countries.

The UK and several other countries have circulated a new draft proposal, seen by AFP and confirmed by a source close to the negotiations, that suggests the fund could be part of a series of “funding deals”.

The document, which was not officially submitted to the UN process, indicated that the new funding source could be operational in two years.

But this would “just agree to some ambiguous funding deals that kick the can on the street,” said Mohamed Adow of think tank Power Shift Africa.