What to watch at COP28 on Thursday and Friday

DUBAI: It's halfway through this year's U.N. climate talks, and negotiations over the draft of a final agreement are ramping up.

While the COP28 conference venue goes quiet on Thursday, with negotiations officially paused for a "day of rest". Delegates are likely to keep deliberating as they work toward agreement by the conference's scheduled Dec. 12 close.

Late Wednesday, country delegations decided which issues to hand over to their ministers for political talks in the coming days. Countries will soon start hashing out the finer details of the text of a hoped-for COP28 deal.

Still up in the air is the fate of fossil fuels. Also still a question mark is who will host next year's COP29 summit.

The U.N. climate chief on Wednesday urged countries to stop posturing and aim for their "highest ambition" as they enter into high-level talks involving their governments.

The two-week summit reopens in full on Friday, when organizers plan to focus their public events on topics relating to youth and children.