Climate and environment updates: Climate leaders call for major overhaul of summit

Some of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters have announced their plans to reduce emissions at the ongoing United Nations climate conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Although not due until 2025, The United Kingdom, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates released their respective Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets at the conference, marking ambitious plans to reduce their climate impacts.

Under the Paris Agreement, participating countries are required to release their NDCs every five years as part of the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"The U.K., Brazil and the UAE are the first major emitters to put forward new national climate commitments, which are the main vehicle for countries to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid catastrophic climate impacts," Melanie Robinson, global director of climate, economics and finance at World Resources Institute said of the announcements.

"Encouragingly, these three nations' new climate targets could put them on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 if their highest ambitions are realized," Robison said.

The U.K. goal aims to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81%, compared to their 1990 levels.

The Brazilian government is expected to release its NDC on Wednesday. In a preview announcement, the country said it's committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 59% to 67%.

"This commitment will allow Brazil to advance towards climate neutrality by 2050, the long-term target of the climate commitment," the government wrote in a statement Monday night. "The NDC results from an extensive assessment of Brazil's emission scenarios. It acknowledges the urgency of combating the climate crisis, addresses the need to build resilience, and sets a roadmap for a low-carbon future for Brazil's society, economy, and ecosystems."

In the UAE's NDC, released last week, the nation sets an emissions reduction target of 47% by 2035, compared to 2019.

"The UAE's third NDC outlines a unified vision for addressing climate change that is aligned and informed by the UAE Consensus adopted at COP28," the UAE wrote in its newest NDC. "The UAE Consensus emphasizes the need for accelerated action across all pillars of the Paris Agreement and serves as a roadmap for enhancing mitigation ambition, scaling up adaptation efforts, and aligning financial flows with low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathways."

"I think when you look at these in the aggregate, what we're seeing is that if these countries really pursue the full extent of what they've committed to, that they would be on track to achieve their net zero targets at mid-century," said David Waskow, director of international climate action at the World Resources Institute, during a press call.

"With all three of them, there's an important question about actually implementing them, and we're going to need to see strong policies and investments," Waskow added.

WRI's Robinson also expressed skepticism about the announcements.

"While these initial 2035 targets look good on paper, they won't move the needle unless countries take bold and immediate steps to turn them into action. The true measure of progress will be whether countries back up their promises with transformative policies and investments that embed climate action at the core of their economic strategies," said Robinson.

-ABC News Climate Unit's Kelly Livingston

For the first time, high-emitting oil and gas facilities will have to pay a fee for emitting a potent greenhouse gas if those emissions exceed a certain level set by the U.S. Environmental Production Agency (EPA).

The new rule, finalized on Tuesday, was announced by John Podesta, the top U.S. climate representative at COP29, the annual U.N. climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The regulation would cap the amount of methane that certain oil and gas facilities could release into the atmosphere. The companies will be charged a fee for each metric ton of methane exceeding that limit, starting at $900 per metric ton, increasing to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026.

EPA administrator Michael S. Regan wrote in a statement, "EPA has been engaging with industry, states, and communities to reduce methane emissions so that natural gas ultimately makes it to consumers as usable fuel — instead of as a harmful greenhouse gas."

He added, "Along with EPA's complementary set of technology standards and historic financial and technical resources under the Inflation Reduction Act, today's action ensures that America continues to lead in deploying technologies and innovations that lower our emissions."

The EPA estimates the new rule will reduce methane emissions by 1.2 million metric tons through 2035. That's the equivalent of taking 8 million gas-powered cars off the road for an entire year, according to the agency.

The EPA classifies methane as a "super pollutant" and says that over 100 years, one ton of methane released into the atmosphere "traps 28 times as much heat in the Earth system as one ton of emitted carbon dioxide." On a 20-year time scale, it's 84 times more potent, according to the European Union.

The EPA said the oil and natural gas industry is the largest industrial source of the greenhouse gas.

During a press call, David Waskow, director of international climate action at the World Resources Institute, said, "Large oil and gas companies actually supported the fee approach, and I think that they're aiming to make sure that methane, which has been a sort of sore spot in the oil and gas industry, is cleaned up as a way of helping the reputation of the oil and gas industry."

Waskow said that even if the incoming Trump administration tries to undo the regulation, he believes its support within the industry may help keep it in place.

-ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser

How much will it cost to fight climate change globally, and who should pay for it? That's the primary issue facing delegates at the annual U.N. climate conference, COP29. Dubbed the "finance COP," the two-week event began on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.

While representatives from nations worldwide will discuss various climate issues, finance is a key theme this year, namely how much external financing will be available to developing countries for their climate adaptation efforts and to compensate them for the damage and loss caused by climate change. Although wealthier countries generate the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, poorer nations are disproportionately impacted by the consequences of global warming.

Conference attendees and climate leaders will be watching closely the climate investment commitments made by various nations and private finance, and much of the discussion will revolve around who should be paying and how much they should be contributing.

The current target for international public and private financing is around $100 billion, but the U.N. estimates that it will take as much as $2.4 trillion by 2030 to meet climate goals, with $1 trillion coming from international sources.

It's uncertain, however, how much each nation will contribute and where the money will go.

"For those poorest countries and particularly for adaptation, finance needs to be in grant and concessional form," said Melanie Robinson, the global climate, economics and finance program director at the World Resources Institute.

One issue sure to be controversial is whether developing countries that can afford to contribute to the global effort should be added to the contributor base. Critics of that recommendation say the biggest emitters should be the most significant contributors.

U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell set the table for the talks during his opening address, focusing on what's at stake.

"If at least two-thirds of the world's nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price," said Stiell. "If nations can't build resilience into supply chains, the entire global economy will be brought to its knees. No country is immune."

Stiell added, "So, let's dispense with the idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every single nation, including the largest and wealthiest."

On the same day Stiell was delivering his remarks, preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization showed that 2024 remains on track to be the warmest year on record and will likely become the first year that is more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial average

COP29 takes place in the shadow of significant political challenges, including changes in worldwide political leanings and the recent presidential election in the U.S. It didn't help that delegates had to delay the convention activities on Monday because leaders couldn't agree on a conference agenda. Who would be leading financial planning meetings, as well as an unconventional move from a supervisory board to pass new standards without any consultation, were the primary sources of contestation.

Mukhtar Babayev, president of COP29 and Azerbaijan minister of ecology and natural resources, suspended sessions for further talks on the agenda.

"The hour is late, we have a lot of work ahead of us," Babayev said as the delayed session resumed.

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin and ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser

With the future of U.S. climate and environmental policies uncertain following the presidential election, the world is gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan, to talk climate change. COP29, formally known as the 29th Annual Conference of Parties, opened Monday with questions about the United States' commitment to global climate goals in light of the 2024 election results.

At a press conference on Monday, U.S. Climate Change Envoy John Podesta told reporters, "For those of us dedicated to climate action, last week's outcome in the United States is obviously bitterly disappointing."

"It is clear that the next administration will try to take a U-turn and reverse much of this progress," Podesta said. "And I know that this disappointment is more difficult to tolerate as the dangers we face grow ever more catastrophic," he added.

In sharp contrast to President-elect Donald Trump calling climate change a hoax, promising to "drill, baby, drill," and roll back unused Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds, Podesta highlighted the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to combat climate change, including the move to rejoin the Paris Agreement and the climate and clean energy investments made through the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Podesta said that while the Biden Administration will work with the incoming Trump Administration to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, "This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet."

"Facts are still facts. Science is still science," he added. "The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country, this fight is bigger still, because we are all living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country of the world."

Podesta pointed to extreme heat records, recent hurricanes in the Southeast United States, flooding in Spain, severe drought in southern Africa, and wildfires in the Amazon as some examples of the acute impacts of climate change felt around the world just this year.

Following then-President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017, a coalition of local and state government leaders, organizations and private industry members announced the joint declaration, "We Are Still In."

Podesta reminded attendees of that effort, saying that while a Trump White House may pose challenges for federal level climate action, the U.S. is not giving up on its goals and that support for clean energy has become a bipartisan issue in the United States.

"You might not know that by reading the newspapers, but it has," he said. "Fifty-seven percent of new clean energy jobs created since the Inflation Reduction Act passed are located in congressional districts represented by Republicans."

He added, "We can and will make real progress on the backs of our climate committed states and cities, our innovators, our companies and our citizens, especially young people, who understand more than most that climate change poses an existential threat that we cannot afford to ignore. Failure or apathy is simply not an option."

-ABC News Climate Unit's Kelly Livingston and Matthew Glasser