Civil society groups walked out of the UN climate negotiations to protest the obvious lack of progress. At around 2 pm local time on Thursday afternoon, hundreds of civil society members returned their badges to the UN office and left the negotiations.

"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,” said a WWF spokesperson.

This is the first mass walkout of this kind at these negotiations and it was supported by 13 international organizations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, Oxfam, ActionAid, 350.org, and the International Trade Union Confederation.

Protesters stressed that this action is not targeted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but specifically at this Conference of the Parties (COP).

“This is a statement about this very COP and is not an attack on the UN,” said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, in an exclusive interview to Desmogblog.

Protesters wore shirts that read “Volverermos” meaning we will return to signal their intentions to organize more effectively for next year’s COP in Lima, Peru.

“We will return with the voice of the people in Lima to hold our governments accountable to the vision of a sustainable and just future,” read the statement, entitled Enough is Enough, that was released by the organizations participating in the action.

The frustration and lack of satisfaction with these negotiations continues to push civil society to move away from the process. This year, the negotiations have not shown any progress despite the high expectations centered on the first ever finance ministerial meeting that started yesterday.

As Naidoo stated negotiators need to “stop playing political poker with the future of the planet.”

“Stop thinking that you can change the science. You can't change the science - you have to change the politics,” he said.

The fossil fuels industry is seen as a major disruptive power at these negotiations.

“It is safe to say that the fossil fuels industry could very well be considered the hosts,” said Hoda Baraka, the global communications director for 350.org, in an interview to RTCC.

The negotiations are scheduled to end on Friday.