Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

How serious is the collapse of these talks?

The sense here is that this is as bad as COP15 in Copenhagen, when talks famously ended without agreement.

That is as bad as it gets.

"The only time I can remember it happening was when the Africa Group did the same in Warsaw in 2013," Paoli says.

But she says the group did return to the talks, leading to a breakthrough.

"So walkouts have proven successful in the past," she adds.

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

Hundreds of people remain inside these wide, glaringly-bright halls.

Behind closed doors are the countries who have not walked out. Plus civil society observers who are allowed to watch UN meetings.

Every time someone walks out, a crowd of journalists with cameras chase after them.

Along with many others, I just ran at speed after a man in a suit flanked by security officers and press, thinking they might say something useful.

But it turns out it was someone from an NGO group, on his way to the toilet.

Climate talks take dramatic turn in Bakupublished at 14:45 Greenwich Mean Time

14:45 GMT

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent in Baku

Image source, Reuters

“Shame” shouted some climate campaigners, “pay up!” shouted others.

The object of their venom was John Podesta, who is the US climate envoy, and was being escorted from a meeting room in chaotic scenes here in Baku.

COP29 has taken a dramatic turn here this afternoon, with walkouts from developing countries from meetings with the Azerbaijani presidency over climate finance.

There was palpable anger among the least developed countries and island states that they were being messed around by richer nations.

They say that the financial offer being negotiated is insulting, they feel excluded and ignored.

In this atmosphere, campaigners turned on Podesta shouting that the US had sold out, and hadn’t paid their fair share.

Podesta seemed unperturbed, telling my colleague Justin Rowlatt that he hoped “this was the storm before the calm”.

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter at COP29 in Baku

In the middle of the chaos, I grabbed a veteran climate talks observer - Mohamed Adow, of Power Shift Africa.

I asked him why the least developed nations and AOSIS walked out?

He said it's because the latest draft deal is even weaker than past versions.

Adow says it no longer specifically requires rich nations to contribute to cash for tackling climate change. Instead, it says the money could come from any country.

"It’s a great escape effectively," he says.

Developing countries think this is the richer world running away from its responsibilities.

He accuses the US of being behind this.

"This is largely as a result of the fear of the incoming Donald Trump administration," he says.

Esme Stallard
Climate reporter in Baku

Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad kept her cards close to her chest when I asked how she was feeling after the news that other developing countries might pull out.

Earlier this year Colombia hosted the UN biodiversity summit - very similar to COP but all about protecting the world's animals and plants.

So Muhamad is very experienced at handling tricky negotiations.

Clearly some of the countries here are trying to keep things calm, as all around me the world's press sprint from meeting room to meeting room in the hope of making sense of what is going on.

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

The clock has ticked past 18:00 local time - that means we're now running more than 24 hours past the original deadline for these talks to wrap up.

And it's now very unclear if there will be a deal at all...

What's gone wrong in Baku?published at 14:23 Greenwich Mean Time

14:23 GMT

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent in Baku

Image source, EPA

COP29 is now teetering on the verge of collapse, observers are saying, after walkouts from negotiators from poorer countries struggling with the impacts of climate change and ongoing deep arguments over finance.

So what's gone wrong?

Developing countries are incensed that the richer world waited until very near the end of this COP to put a figure for climate support on the table.

They are also upset that the $250bn (£199bn) offer was so low – the G77 and China group of developing countries are now said to want public grants of $500bn per year.

Richer nations say this is impossible in the current economic circumstances.

Uniting all parties here is disdain for the Azerbaijani COP presidency – they are said to be weak and simply don’t have the experience or the clout to drive this gathering to a successful outcome.

All is not lost. Some observers believe the EU with small island states and the UK will have to wrest control of this meeting from the Azerbaijanis to turn it around.

But time is short.

“We are in a near-perilous state,” said one seasoned participant.

Dozens of protesters have been making their voices heard on the sidelines of COP29 today.

While many attendees have left the conference, some representatives from environmental and human rights groups remain.

Chanting "no deal is better than a bad deal", they are keen to put pressure on developing countries to push for more financial support from richer countries.

Here are a few of the groups we've seen:

Image source, Tony Joliffe / BBC

Image source, Tony Joliffe / BBC

Image source, Tony Joliffe / BBC

Mark Poynting
Climate and environment researcher in London

It's a fast-moving situation at COP29 - this is what's going on:

• Talks appear to be on the verge of collapse after the group of small island states announced they were pulling out
• Money is the big issue here – climate diplomats are debating the funds richer countries should commit to give to developing countries to help them tackle climate change
• Yesterday, the draft text gave a main goal of $250bn (about £200bn) a year by 2035, led by developed countries, and covering public and private sources
• But that has been heavily criticised as falling far short of what poorer countries have asked for
• There’s also disagreement over fossil fuels - that's coal, oil and gas
• The concern is that some countries are trying to backtrack on last year’s agreement to "transition away" from fossil fuels in energy systems
• We were expecting new draft texts on these issues this morning - but they still haven't come
• As a result it's not clear when the talks - which were due to conclude yesterday - will reach a conclusion, if at all

Esme Stallard
Climate reporter in Baku

Image source, Reuters

The US seems unfazed.

"I hope this is the storm before the calm," John Podesta, the US climate envoy, tells our climate editor Justin Rowlatt.

A rare moment of optimism amid the very sour mood here.

Podesta is a veteran of diplomacy so has perhaps seen this all before, but it's not clear at the moment if the US and other rich nations are willing to come back to the table with a higher offer of cash.

Mark Poynting
Climate and environment researcher in London

It is very common for these conferences to overrun, but it would be highly unusual for talks to collapse entirely.

If that were to happen, the final deal would likely be delayed until next June in Bonn, Germany, as happened with COP6 in 2000.

Bonn is the location of the UN climate headquarters, and it is where countries typically gather for a mid-year climate conference - think of it as a mini-COP.

The aim of these Bonn meetings is to make some progress in some of the technical aspects of the negotiations, so that political decisions can be taken at COP at the end of the year.

Pushing back the COP29 deal to Bonn could therefore have knock-on consequences for progress ahead of next year’s COP30 in Brazil too.

But talks haven't collapsed yet, so let's see how the next few hours go.

Image source, Reuters

We're hearing now from a member of the small islands group, which has just announced it's pulling out to the climate talks.

"We've just walked out," says Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which represents areas potentially most vulnerable to climate change.

"We came here to this COP for a fair deal," he says, "we feel that we haven't been heard".

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

Hundreds of people are now milling around outside the meeting room that developing and vulnerable AOSIS nations walked out of.

It's a frenetic, confused atmosphere. No-one is quite sure what will happen next.

"We have temporarily walked out but remain interested in the talks until we get a fair deal," said Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulahi, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Sierra Leone, who is talking on behalf of the Least Developing Countries.

We're waiting to see if these countries will come back - if they don't, this could be the end of these talks.

But delegations will have flights home booked - once the talks lose the required number needed to pass a deal, it's game over.

Esme Stallard
Climate reporter in Baku

AOSIS - the group representing the small island states, potentially the most vulnerable to climate change have just announced they are pulling out.

"Our needs are known [and] they are being ignored," announced the group's negotiators in a manic hastily arranged press conference in the middle of the corridor.

We heard just an hour ago that AOSIS chairman Cedric Schuster raised to the COP president that they had been excluded from the talks - and it seems like they have had enough.

We're trying to bring you the news as quickly as possible but it is manic here, it really feels like the talks aren't just on the verge of collapse but are now fully in freefall.

Esme Stallard
Climate reporter in Baku

Things are starting to crumble here in Baku.

Our climate editor Justin Rowlatt has just seen the Least Developed Country group - an influential group representing poorer countries - walk out of the meeting with the COP29 President to discuss the new proposed cash offer from rich countries.

We have been told that $300bn (£239bn) was put forward, which the group thinks is far too low - they want $500bn.

One delegate told us the COP might now have to be suspended and we could go to a "COP-bis".

This funny UN term is when the session is suspended and then potentially reopened at a later date. This has happened before back at COP6 in 2000.

It is a worrying sign that talks have broken down if that is the case.

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

Earlier, a group of protesters were chanting and waving flags in one corner of the COP29 venue.

It was good to see some activity at least, while we all wait around.

Muhammed Lamin from Senegal was one of them. He tells me we're now "in the critical hours" and it's time for communities like his to be heard.

He says many people in his country have been "submerged by floods, livelihoods are gone, houses are gone, communities are gone".

"People are dying - it's not about numbers it's about lives. Leaders must hear this," Lamin says.

"This ship will sink, there will be no first class, no second class - we are all going to sink together if they don't put finance on the table."

Sophie Yeo
BBC Future

Image source, Getty Images

Tuvalu, a small country in the Pacific Ocean made up of nine coral islands, is reckoning with a future where it may no longer be habitable, external.

Sea level rise, caused by climate change, is eating away at its shores, external.

Faced with such an existential threat, what do you do? Build sea walls, external? Try to reclaim, external some land from the sea? Move away, external altogether?

As the physical reality of the nation slips beneath the ocean, the government is building a digital copy of the count, externalr, externaly, external, backing up everything from its houses to its beaches to its trees.

It hopes this virtual replica will preserve the nation's beauty and culture – as well as the legal rights of its 11,000 citizens – for generations to come.

• Read more about Tuvalu's efforts to safeguard its heritage and natural beauty on BBC Future Planet

Georgina Rannard
Climate reporter in Baku

I've just heard from a source close to AOSIS - which is a grouping of small island states that are very vulnerable to climate change.

They told me the minister leading AOSIS inside Meeting Room 3 (where the final deal is being debated) has told the room that his group were excluded from writing the latest text. As a reminder, this text has not yet been published so we have not seen it.

"AOSIS and many of the sub groups within the G77 were not part of the discussion that gave rise to these imbalanced texts," AOSIS chairman Cedric Schuster told the ministers, according to my source.

G77 is a large group of developing nations.

"We have requested for the space from you for engagement in the process with you facilitating this discussion," Schuster went on to say.

Just a reminder that the COP talks are supposed to be done by consensus, with all nations agreeing the final deal.

When I asked if they could walk away from these talks, my source said "that is up to the nations' leaders".

Image source, Getty Images

Jack Burgess
Live page editor

Right, I think it's about time for a quick test to see how good your climate knowledge is.

If you can answer these three questions, the BBC's climate and science team here in Baku will be very impressed.

Question 1: What does COP stand for?

Question 2: What is the Paris Agreement?

Question 3: Which year is the hottest since records began?

Keep scrolling to see the answers below the photo...

Image source, EPA

Answer 1: COP stands for “Conference of the Parties”.

Answer 2: At COP21 in Paris, world leaders pledged to try and prevent global temperatures rising by more than 1.5C.

It saw almost all the world's nations - for the first time - agree in 2015 to cut the greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming.

Answer 3: The year 2023 is the warmest on record, driven by human-caused climate change and boosted by the natural El Niño weather event.

However, projections by the European climate service say it's now "virtually certain" that 2024 will be the world's warmest on record.

I'll have more quiz questions for you soon.

Esme Stallard
Climate reporter in Baku

Image source, Reuters

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has just posted an extensive attack on the COP29 president and "new rich emitters" - which we take to mean countries like Saudi Arabia - on social media platform X.

"As the EU, we are facing up to our historic responsibility. But climate finance and CO2 reduction belong together. We will not allow the poorest countries to be ripped off by the new rich emitters with the backing of the presidency," she says.

That sums up the battle going on here - that developing countries want more money and richer nations like Germany will only give it if there is a recommitment to what was agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels.

I think the signs of a nearly 30-hour straight negotiation are starting to show.