Climate-vulnerable nations walk out of overtime talks

On Saturday, UN climate talks in Azerbaijan went far into overtime without clinching a deal to help the nations most at risk.

Delegations representing several small and impoverished nations severely threatened by climate change walked out of consultations.

“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.

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."

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. 

Source: Agencies