COP29: Climate-vulnerable nations walk out of overtime talks

Delegations representing several small and impoverished nations severely threatened by climate change walked out of consultations on Saturday as UN climate talks in Azerbaijan went far into overtime without clinching a deal to help the nations most at risk.

"We're here as a group of AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States) and LDCs (Least Developed Countries). We've just walked out," said Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the group.

"We came here to this COP for a fair deal. We feel that we haven't been heard, and there's a deal to be made, and we have not been consulted ... We've walked out because at the moment, we don't feel that we are being heard," Schuster said.

'Still committed' to reach a deal for climate cash

Negotiators in Baku are discussing draft texts, with several countries urging industrialized nations to increase funding for climate change actions.

DW's Giulia Saudelli, who is in Baku, reports, "there's a feeling that time is starting to run out, and could play against the most vulnerable countries."

"Some developing countries feel like they are not being listened to, and that they have not been included enough in the negotiations so far, with the richer countries talking mostly among themselves, they say," Saudelli reports. 

AOSIS issued a statement after the walkout saying it remained "committed to this process."

"We have presently removed ourselves from the stalled NCQG (New Collective Quantified Goal) discussions, which were not offering a progressive way forward," it said.

"We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE," it went on, adding: "If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29."

 

Germany slams rich oil states

The walkout comes as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock slammed rich fossil fuel emitters, whom she accused of having "ripped off" those states most at risk from climate change.

"We are in the midst of a geopolitical power play by a few fossil fuel states," Baerbock said.

"We Europeans will not allow the most vulnerable states in the world, especially the small island states, to be ripped off by some of the new [rich fossil-fuel] emitters," Baerbock added. 

She also warned against reversing last year's climate resolutions while trying to increase climate aid for poorer countries.

She said that funding for climate aid and reducing harmful emissions are closely linked. "Money alone won't save the world," Baerbock stated.

"We have to do everything to come toward the 1.5 degree (Celsius, 2.7 Fahrenheit) pathway," she added, referring to the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below that temperature limit compared with preindustrial times.

Deal or no deal

Developing nations have asked for $1.3 trillion (€1.25 trillion) to help them adapt to the immediate consequences of climate change, such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels and extreme heat.

They say that sum would also help pay for losses and damage caused by extreme weather events, and aid them to wean their energy production from fossil fuels. 

An official draft on Friday pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, a sum that was raised to $300 billion on Friday, sources said.

Although that trebles the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago, it falls far short of the demands of at-risk nations.

The Azerbaijani head of COP29 urged nationsbridge their differences. "I know that none of us want to leave Baku without the good outcome on our key deliverable," Mukhtar Babayev said.

"I ask you to now step up your engagement with one another to bridge the remaining divide."

 tj/lo (AFP, AP, Reuters)