REPRESENTATIVES of small and impoverished nations threatened by climate change have walked out of talks at COP29 over disagreements on funding targets.
Climate talks, which were due to finish yesterday, are now at a standstill in Baku, Azerbaijan, after more than 190 countries attempted to layout new financial settlements to curb climate change.
During the talks wealthier nations offered $250 billion a year to developing countries annually to fight climate change. This was met with dismay by envoys for developing countries including Mozambique and Samoa.
This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but far short of the annual $1.3 trillion that experts say is needed.
Samoa's minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, one of the representatives who walked out of discussions said: "We are here to negotiate but we have walked out... at the moment we don't feel we are being heard in there."
Evans Njewa, chair for a group of more than 40 of the world’s least developed countries, claims the current deal is "unacceptable”.
He continued: “We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do."
Previous efforts to deliver funding of $100 billion to developing countries ran late and often came in the form of loans.
Developing countries claim they need $1.3 trillion by 2035 to handle growing impacts of climate change. Wealthier nations refused to put a figure on how much support they would give.
Sky News reports that UK were willing to bump up the goal to $300bn as of this morning.
COP29 is the United Nations' annual climate change summit. This year's conference takes place in Azerbaijan, whose economy is primarily fuelled by its petroleum and natural gas industries, which account for over 90% its export.
