In this file photo taken on Oct. 12, 2011, an alpinist heads down a ridge on the Aiguille du Midi.

African countries on Sunday dismissed an early draft of a U.N. climate accord as “unbalanced” and demanded amendments to even consider it at the final negotiating session before a landmark conference in Paris.

The move by the African bloc came on the eve of week-long talks in Bonn, Germany, on what’s envisioned to become the most ambitious agreement ever to fight global warming.

Delegates on Monday were supposed to start line-by-line editing a 20-page draft that contains multiple options on how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.

But the African countries, many of which are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts such as desertification and sea level rise, said the draft “cannot be used as a basis for negotiation, as it is unbalanced, and does not reflect the African Group positions, and crosses the group’s redlines.”

Group spokesman Seyni Nafo told The Associated Press that the African countries want more emphasis on financial support to help poor countries cope with climate change.

Nafo said the group was confident that it would be allowed to make additions to the text before negotiations get underway.

“Our position is not to delay work, but to ensure that there’s a fair basis for all,” he said.

Some 150 countries — including top emitters China, the United States, the European Union and India — have already made voluntary pledges to cut or curb their emissions after 2020, when the deal is supposed to take effect.

But several analyses show those pledges won’t be enough to prevent levels of warming that many consider dangerous, so a key element of the Paris deal would be a mechanism to raise those commitments over time.

“We don’t want to make a picture, we want to make a movie,” Netherlands climate envoy Michel Rentenaar said, insisting that the Paris agreement cannot freeze the current level of ambition on climate action.

The U.N. talks have made significant strides since a 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen failed to live up to expectations. For the first time all countries now agree they need to act against climate change, which scientists say is already transforming the planet through melting glaciers, rising sea levels, intensifying heat waves and warmer, more acidic oceans.

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