UN climate summit near collapse as vulnerable nations make dramatic exit

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The UN COP29 climate summit threatened to collapse after negotiators speaking for 80 small islands and vulnerable nations walked out of finance talks and Germany accused the Azerbaijani host of backing attempts by fossil fuel producing countries to hijack the summit.

The two country groups, known as the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries, left the meeting rooms late on Saturday afternoon following an updated proposal of $300bn in climate finance.

“We’ve not been offered a deal, we’ve been offered an insult,” said a member of Barbados’ delegation, while walking out of the finance negotiations at the summit which has already overrun by more than a day.

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign affairs minister, warned that a “few fossil fuel states” were attempting a “geopolitical power play” in Baku, where almost 200 countries are debating a new climate finance goal and how to make progress on the shift away from oil, gas and coal.

Several people involved in the talks told the Financial Times that countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia were attempting to block any references to advancing last year’s agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. “It is clear who is pulling the strings of the COP29 presidency,” said one senior negotiator.

Speaking in Baku, Baerbock said oil and gas producing nations were playing a game on the “backs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries”.

“We will not allow the most vulnerable to be ripped off by the few fossil fuel producing countries, who at this moment have the backing of the COP29 presidency.”

The talks were in “a crisis”, said Alden Meyer, senior associate at think-tank E3G, and the walkout was a “massive expression of lack of trust in the presidency process”.

Azerbaijan relies on fossil fuels for export income to support its economy while Ilham Aliyev, its president, even praised the country’s “God-given” oil and gas in speeches during the opening days of COP29.

The COP29 presidency team, led by ecology and natural resources minister Mukhtar Babayev, declined to comment. Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment and a person close to Russia’s delegation said they had no comment.

The small island states group of about 40 nations left the door open to talks starting again. Cedric Schuster, chair of their negotiating group, said it remained “committed to this process”. “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be inclusive.”

But there was also criticism of the EU negotiating tactics. Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomèz, Panama’s head of delegation, said the EU was playing “game[s]” by ensuring the negotiations over climate finance dragged on.

“This is what they always do,” he said on Saturday. “They break us at the last minute . . . they push and push it and push it until the negotiators leave, until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”

The finance goal aimed at helping developing countries shift to green energy and adapt to a warming world was increased from the initial offer of $250bn to $300bn in a meeting on Saturday evening.

In the stadium where the summit is taking place, protesters chanted “No deal is better than a bad deal” and urged the G77 group of developing nations to walk away. The G77 has called for at least $500bn in finance.

“We’re doing our utmost to build bridges with literally everyone,” said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. “It is not easy, neither on finance nor on mitigation. It is also a fair ask to stay constructive. There is no alternative to do whatever we can.”