UN delegates in climate talks have agreed a "compromise" on how to include a key scientific report after two weeks of talks in Bonn, Germany.
Negotiators decided the report represented the "best available science".
But they have not included any targets on emissions researchers said were vital to keep temperatures in check.
Some smaller island delegates claimed the move amounted to a surrender to fossil fuel producers.
Several wore T-shirts with the slogan "Science is not negotiable".
The arguments here have focused on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the report it produced last October on how the world would cope with a temperature rise of 1.5C this century.
The scientists concluded that it was possible to keep below this mark, but it would require huge cuts in emissions over the next years, with the world getting to net zero by 2050.
For small island states, who believe that they might cease to exist if temperatures go above this level, the report was seen as key to their survival.
But major fossil fuel producers were very wary. In December, the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait declined to welcome the study into the UN process.
That battle continued here in Bonn.
Small island states wanted to approve a text that would include reference to the scientists' conclusion that carbon emissions would have to be reduced by 45% by 2030.
However, Saudi Arabia has been to the fore in wanting to include text that underlined the uncertainties in the report.
For the group of around 40 small island states, this has proved inflammatory.
"Disregarding or qualifying the best available science is tantamount to climate denialism," said Ambassador Lois Young from Belize, who is the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.
"We must not permit even a whiff of denialism in the multilateral process. We must use the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 to operationalise the Paris Agreement," she said in a statement, referring to the 2016 international accord on climate change.
However rather than have a full scale war on the floor of the conference centre, a compromise text was agreed. The report was considered, the parties' exchange of views was noted and the IPCC were thanked for providing the "best available science."/bbc NEWS