WARSAW, Poland — Activists walked out of U.N. climate talks the day before they end, saying two weeks of negotiations have brought no results
Wearing “polluters talk, we walk” T-shirts, hundreds of activists walked out on Thursday from Warsaw’s National Stadium, the venue for the meeting.
In a statement, the protesters said the Warsaw talks of more than 190 nations were “on track to deliver virtually nothing” while the “actions of many rich countries … are directly undermining” the U.N. climate efforts.
No deal is expected at talks, which are meant to lay the foundation for a new agreement on greenhouse gas emission cuts in 2015.
Rich and poor nations are struggling with a yawning rift over developing countries’ efforts to make developed countries accept responsibility for global warming.
Susann Scherbarth, from the Friends of the Earth Europe, says the walkout was held “out of frustration and disappointment.”
Philippine Climate Commissioner Naderev Sano said his delegation shared the protesters’ “anger and frustration” while “political will seems to be going in the opposite direction” of the aim of the negotiations. At the start of the talks last week, Sano pleaded for efficient talks, pointing to the destruction wrought in the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan.
Alerted by scientists over global warming and destructive natural phenomena believed to be linked to it, the U.N. initiated climate change talks in 1992. The next round is next year in Lima, Peru.
