The United States' climate envoy, John Podesta, leaves a meeting room at the UN's COP29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, after the world's most climate-imperilled nations stormed out of consultations in protest at the deadlocked conference, as simmering tensions over a hard-fought finance deal erupted into the open. "Hopefully this is the storm before the calm", Podesta tells journalists. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES