Nations seeking a strong climate change deal at the UN talks received a rebuff as draft texts proposed future emission cuts kicking in after 2020.

The EU and many countries vulnerable to climate impacts say that is too late to prevent major consequences, and cuts should start well before.

They also want to ensure that future deal would be legally binding on all.

But the draft texts written by chairs of overnight talks do not specify a legally binding outcome.

This year’s talks in South Africa are not intended to produce a new binding agreement.

But the EU and its allies from the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are seeking a firm roadmap towards such an agreement, and soon.

Aosis delegates are not happy with the drafts.

They, and the EU, have pledged they will not make an agreement here that is not consistent with the scientific picture.

“If there is no further movement, then I must say I don’t think there will be a deal in Durban,” said EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard.

The drafts broadly reflect the priorities of the BASIC group – Brazil, the South African hosts, India and China – and the United States.

They envisage some developed countries – the EU, and probably others – pledging further emission cuts within the Kyoto Protocol, without making those pledges binding as yet under the protocol.

One seasoned observer of the UN process said the proposals “buy 10 years’ delay in action for the US, China, India and Brazil, and risk making the most vulnerable countries ‘road kill’ on the big emitters’ highway to the future.”

Detailed reactions from delegations are awaited.

The main lobby of the conference centre in Durban, South Africa, saw a long demonstration on the final afternoon, with campaigners demanding progress.

“Listen to the people, not the polluters,” they chanted.

The last of the demonstrators was led away about an hour and a half later.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), said that whatever governments decide here will not be enough to bridge the gap between the emission cuts governments have pledged, and the cuts necessary to keep the global average temperature rise below 2C from pre-industrial times.