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If implemented, current promises leave the planet on a course to warm at least 3 degrees by 2100, scientists say.

Developing nations also want to see more progress towards a promise to provide US$100 billion ($140 billion) a year in public and private climate support by 2020, compared with reported pledges of about US$70 billion.

'Optimistic'

Environment Minister Melissa Price reiterated the Morrison government's confidence Australia will meet its 2030 goal of cutting 2005-levels of carbon pollution by just over a quarter.

Ms Price also remained "optimistic" agreement on the rulebook can be reached, her spokesman said on Friday.

Aside from a speech on Wednesday, though, the Minister has avoided the spotlight.

"Australia has had a long history as a constructive, valued partner [at climate talks]," said Mr Merzian, who previously served a negotiator for nine years. "Here, Australia's not had any credibility or profile."

Low points

Australia has also drawn criticism at the conference for its failure to voice support - unlike Canada, for instance - for the acceptance of the special Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report examining impacts of a 1.5-degree rise in global temperatures. The planet has warmed about 1 degree from pre-industrial times.

Ms Price also declined to rule out using Assigned Amount Units accumulated when the Kyoto Protocol lapses in 2020 to count against its Paris target. Labor's climate spokesman Mark Butler won't rule them out either.

“When Paris was being negotiated there was never any question that it was a new mechanism, that Kyoto units would expire at the end of the Kyoto period,” James Shaw, New Zealand's climate minister, said on Friday. "Frankly, it shouldn't be an issue."

Australia's Kyoto credit stance was one reason the country was declared "Fossil of the Day" on Wednesday by the Climate Action Network.

Another surprise was the appearance by Patrick Suckling, Australia's ambassador for the environment and chief negotiator, at a pro-coal event run by the US on Monday. Mr Suckling was reported to have said he was "very happy to be on this panel", which was disrupted by protesters.

'Different concern levels'

On Thursday, 15 Pacific island states issued an appeal for all rich nations to phase out burning coal by 2030 and all other states by 2040.

“There must be no expansion of existing coal mines or the creation of new mines”, the statement said, adding that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees was "a matter of survival" for the low-lying nations.

New Zealand's Minister Shaw said the debate was often frustrating.

“We’re sort of [more] worried about a couple of points of gross domestic product than we’re worried about your continued existence,” Mr Shaw said. “Because of that fundamental, different world view, it makes it hard to resolve some of those issues because the levels of those concern are so different.”

'Step backwards'

Kate Dooley, a researcher at the Australian-German Climate & Energy College at the University of Melbourne, said the draft negotiating text released late on Thursday "took a step backward on all elements related to raising ambition to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement".

These included undermining finance flows for developing countries, unfair accounting rules, and a continuation of loopholes for emissions from forests and land, all of which leads to a lack of ambition, she said.

Unless nations could agree on raising their climate goals and lift support to developing nations by 2020, "we cannot avoid a 1.5-degree temperature rise", Ms Dooley said.