By SETH BORENSTEIN, MELINA WALLING and ANTON L. DELGADO, Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Several nations and environmental groups on Friday slammed proposals in the final stages of this year’s U.N. climate talks for failing to explicitly mention the cause of global warming — the burning of fuels such as oil, gas and coal — with one top negotiator warning the talks are on “the verge of collapse.”

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Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, a top negotiator for Panama, said the decades-long United Nations process risks “becoming a clown show” for the omission. His nation was among 36 to object to a proposal drafted by conference president André Corrêa do Lago of host Brazil.

Do Lago countered by telling negotiators he thought the negotiators “are very close” to doing what they se

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