Green groups walk out of climate talks in Poland over inaction

Environmental advocacy groups have walked out on U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, to protest what they called slow action and lack of commitment. About 800 people from environment and development groups, trade unions and social movements turned in their registration badges Thursday and left Poland's national stadium, where the Conference of the Parties, the governing body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is being held, Britain's The Guardian reported. "Movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks," a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund said. "This will be the first time ever that there has been a mass withdrawal from a COP." Negotiations have deadlocked in technical areas at this year's conference, as developed and developing countries have been locked in debate over compensation and costs. "Warsaw, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing," the WWF spokesman said. "We feel that governments have given up on the process." Environmentalists have expressed anger over what they see as a closeness of governments to industrial lobbies. "It has become quite flagrantly obvious that progress to reach any legally binding climate treaty is being obstructed by the lobbying forces of the fossil fuel industry," Hoda Baraka, global communications director for 350.org, said. "As we can see from this COP, they've had a very strong presence before and during."