UN climate talks in disarray as developing nations stage walkout at COP29

Negotiators are racing to salvage the United Nations climate talks after developing nations staged a walkout, demanding more in climate finance from historically wealthy emitters.

More than a day past the scheduled conclusion of COP29 talks, host Azerbaijan urged delegates to seek consensus to avoid failure.

“I know that none of us wants to leave Baku without a good outcome,” COP President Mukhtar Babayev told a late-night session on Saturday, urging all nations to “bridge the remaining divide”.

The comments came hours after delegations from small island states and the least developed nations walked out of negotiations on a funding package for poor countries to curb and adapt to climate change, saying their climate finance interests were being ignored.

“We’ve just walked out. We came here to this COP for a fair deal. We feel that we haven’t been heard,” said Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, a coalition of nations threatened by rising seas.

When asked if the walkout was a protest, Colombia Environment Minister Susana Mohamed told The Associated Press news agency: “I would call this dissatisfaction, [we are] highly dissatisfied.”

With tensions high, climate activists also heckled United States climate envoy John Podesta as he left the meeting room.

They accused the US of not paying its fair share and having “a legacy of burning up the planet”.

Later on Saturday, representatives from the European Union, the US and other wealthy countries met directly with those of developing nations in an attempt to work out an agreeement.