The first draft of the COP28 Presidency text is "unacceptable" and must be re-worked, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan has said.
Minister Ryan, who is a lead EU negotiator on climate finance, has said if the text was not improved it could be "grounds for walking away from it completely."
He has been attending the COP28 climate conference in Dubai which runs until December 12th.
In a statement, Minister Ryan singled out paragraph 39 of the draft text which talks about the "need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gases."
He criticised a call to parties to take action that "could" include a range of measures including "phasing down unabated coal" and "accelerating technologies" such as carbon capture and storage.
“We can't accept this text. It’s not anywhere near ambitious enough," Minister Ryan said.
"It's not broad enough. It’s not what parties have been calling for.
"We can't have a get out of jail card for the fossil fuel industry and the current text would give them that.
"We have to hugely strengthen the finance sections. We need to phase up the opportunities to invest in renewables, particularly in the developing world.
"However, above all, we need clear mechanisms for implementation so that we can begin to work on changing the global financial systems to incentivise investment in renewable energy systems and in adaptation.
"These are critical for developing countries. We have to stitch climate justice into every part of this text and we are not anywhere near that yet," he added.
Minister Ryan's attendance came under the spotlight last week, when it was thought he may have to leave the conference to vote in a Dáil confidence motion on Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
