BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – United Nations climate talks neared the end of their first week on Saturday with negotiators still working out how much wealthier nations will pay for developing countries to adapt to a warming planet. In the meantime, activists planned actions on what is traditionally their biggest day of protest during the two-week talks.

The demonstration in Baku, Azerbaijan is expected to be echoed in places around the world during a global “day of action” for climate justice that has become an annual event.

Negotiators at COP29, as the talks are called, will return to a long-awaited deal that could host hundreds of billions of dollars to poorer nations. Many are in Global South and already suffering the costly effects of weather disasters due to climate change. Several experts have said that $1 trillion a year or more is needed both to offset such damage and to pay for a transition to clean energy that most countries cannot afford on their own.

The conversations received criticism on several fronts Friday. Two former top UN officials signed a letter suggesting the process must shift from negotiation to implementation. And others, including former US Vice President Al Gore, criticized the looming presence of the fossil fuel industry and fossil fuel-dependent nations in the talks. An analysis found at least 1,770 fossil fuel people on the participant list for the Baku talks.

The conference’s chief negotiator, Yalchin Rafiyev, acknowledged that talks on a deal were moving too slowly, but pushed back on the criticism.

“The process has already delivered, the COP process so far, by reducing projected warming, delivering funding to those in need,” Rafiev said. “It’s better than any alternative.”

Progress could get a boost as many nations’ ministers, whose approval is necessary for whatever negotiators do, arrive in the second week.

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Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles contributed.

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