Representatives of dozens of African islands and countries vulnerable to climate change have withdrawn from high-stakes negotiations on a climate finance target.

Patience is running out and tensions have run high during the COP29 climate negotiations in Azerbaijan, which were due to end yesterday but are now in overtime.

After two weeks of diplomatic tensions, more than 190 countries meeting in the capital Baku are still trying to reach a financial agreement to channel money to poorer countries to curb and adapt to climate change.

Least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa are furious that their calls for some of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, is one of the representatives who walked out of the finance discussions.

“We are here to negotiate but we have left… at the moment we do not feel like we are being heard,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shores are disappearing due to rising sea levels.

Shortly after, he made a veiled threat to leave COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.”

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to talk to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The latest official project published on Friday promised 250 billion dollars per year by 2035.

That’s more than double the previous $100 billion target set 15 years ago, but far short of the $1.3 trillion annually needed, experts say.

Sky News understands that some developed countries, such as the UK, were this morning willing to raise the target to $300 billion.

But a group of 77 developing countries negotiating as a bloc appears unwilling to accept anything less than $500 billion.

Developing countries are angry not only about the financial negotiations, but also about how to make progress on last year’s pledge to “move away from fossil fuels.”

A group of oil-producing countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have attempted to dilute that language, while the United Kingdom and the island state are among those who have fought to maintain it.

Mr Schuster said whatever was being negotiated contained a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We were asked to forget all this during this COP, as if we were not in a critical decade and as if the limit of 1.5°C was not in danger. »

“We must be shown the respect our dire situation requires.”