Negotiators from small island states and the least-developed nations have walked out of negotiations during overtime United Nations climate talks, saying their climate finance interests were being ignored.
Nerves frayed on Saturday as negotiators from rich and poor nations huddled in a room at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan to try to hash out an elusive deal on finance for developing countries to curb and adapt to climate change.
But the rough draft of a new proposal was soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states, according to messages relayed from inside.
“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.
“[The] current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group, said.
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”.
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