Activists walk out of UN climate talks in Warsaw

Hundreds of environmental activists walked out of UN climate talks on Thursday, saying they were deeply disappointed by the lack of results with just one day remaining.

Wearing “Polluters talk, we walk” T-shirts, the activists streamed out of Warsaw’s National Stadium, where rich and poor countries were arguing over who should do what to fight global warming.

The two-week session in the Polish capital was never expected to produce any big decisions or breakthroughs, but the protesters said in a statement that the talks were “on track to deliver virtually nothing”.

Negotiations have been bogged down by disputes over financing to help poor countries develop their economies in a cleaner way than the West did and cope with rising sea levels, desertification and other impacts of global warming.

Meanwhile, emerging economies including China and Brazil appeared to resist a European push for setting a next year deadline for when countries should put forth commitments for a new climate agreement, which is supposed to be adopted a year later.

The level of progress is seen as a possible indicator of the world’s chances of reaching a deal in 2015. That’s the new watershed year in the UN-led process after a 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in discord.

“If we go with the spirit of the lack of urgency that we see in these talks, we are headed for another disaster in Paris in 2015 and we need to avert it at all cost,” Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo told reporters.