Climate and environment updates: US fuel economy hits record high

In a surprising turn of events, world leaders at the United Nations climate conference in Azerbaijan announced they have reached agreement on a new deal that calls for wealthy countries to contribute $300 billion annually to help developing nations deal with the effects of climate change.

After fears no deal would be reached as talks broke down, the announcement came around 3 a.m. local time and was met with a standing ovation and a wave of relief.

The deal in question was the "climate cash" agreement, under which developed nations will contribute an annual target of $300 billion to help climate-vulnerable, developing countries deal with the consequences of climate change.

President Joe Biden on Saturday praised the agreement, while touting his administration’s work on climate change, saying "nobody" can undo America’s "clean energy revolution," in an apparent swipe at President-elect Donald Trump.

"Today at COP29, thanks in part to the tireless efforts of a robust US delegation, the world reached agreement on another historic outcome," Biden said in a statement, going on to say the "ambitious" deal "will help mobilize the level of finance – from all sources – that developing countries need to accelerate the transition to clean, sustainable economies, while opening up new markets for American-made electric vehicles, batteries, and other products."

Biden, who is leaving office in less than two months, said states and cities will continue to tackle climate change -- notably not mentioning the federal government, while adding that no one can overturn progress on the issue, repeating something he said last week while visiting the Amazon.

In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had "hoped for a more ambitious outcome" on both financing and climate change mitigation efforts from the conference.

"But this agreement provides a base on which to build," he said in the statement. "It must be honoured in full and on time. Commitments must quickly become cash. All countries must come together to ensure the top-end of this new goal is met."

Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan's minister of ecology and natural resources who served as the COP29 president, said in a statement the $300 billion goal "represents the best possible deal we could reach."

The U.N. climate conference, known as COP29, was anticipated to be the "finance COP" -- the site of negotiations to determine how much fighting the climate crisis would cost and who would pay for it.

In 2015, under the Paris Agreement, participating countries agreed to set climate financing goals in 2024 that would account for the needs of developing countries.

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule, Fritz Farrow and Jack Moore

The U.N. climate conference in Azerbaijan was supposed to be the "finance COP." World leaders would determine how much fighting the climate crisis would cost and who would pay for it.

However, as COP29 winds down, many developing countries and nongovernmental organizations are dissatisfied with the current language in the proposed climate finance agreement.

In 2015, under the Paris Agreement, participating countries agreed to set a New Collective Quantified Goal, or NCQG, on climate finance in 2024 that would account for the needs of developing countries. Basically, how much money would each nation spend to support developing countries that are being disproportionately impacted by climate?

While several versions of the new NCQG have been proposed, a final agreement is still out of reach. The latest text calls for a $1.3 trillion climate finance investment annually until 2035 but only requires a $250 billion investment from developed countries.

"With a paltry climate finance offer of $250 billion annually, and a deadline to deliver as late as 2035, richer nations, including EU countries, and the United States are dangerously close to betraying the Paris Agreement," Dr. Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, said. "This is nowhere near the robust and desperately needed funding lower income nations deserve to combat climate change."

The latest NCQG language lays out a variety of funding sources that can play a part in reaching global climate finance goals, including multilateral development banks, or MDBs, that can distribute funds through grants and concessional loans for developing countries and adaptation projects.

However, the text does not make clear whether funds from MDBs are part of reaching the $250 billion goal or supplement that goal. It also includes provisions allowing for voluntary contributions from developing countries.

"The central demand coming into COP29 was for a strong, science-aligned climate finance commitment, which this appalling text utterly fails to provide," Cleetus said. "Wealthier nations seem content to shamefully renege on their responsibility and cave in to fossil fuel interests while unjustly foisting the costs of deadly climate extremes on countries that have contributed the least to the climate crisis."

World Resources Institute Global Climate, Economics and Finance Program Director Melanie Robinson agrees, releasing a statement Friday saying, "Developed countries should aim higher than the $250 billion they've put on the table."

"We should leave Baku with a goal that at least gets to $300 billion a year by 2035," Robinson said.

Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, called the latest draft text "an insult to the people in the Global south."

"This latest draft text on the New Collective Quantified Goal is not just a joke -- it's an insult to the people in the Global South living on the front line of the climate crisis," Essop said. "In the meantime, millions of people's lives are at risk. We are angry, but we will keep fighting until the end."

-ABC News Climate Unit's Kelly Livingston and ABC News' Charlotte Slovin

If you thought October was unusually warm, it isn't your imagination. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that last month was the second warmest October since the U.S. began keeping records in 1895. It was also the second driest, with less than an inch of rainfall. It should be more than double that.

October was also the second warmest on record globally when looking at land and ocean temperatures. And it was the warmest ever for land temperature alone.

According to the NOAA, there is now a 99% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year on record globally.

This new data continues 2024's streak of having some of the driest and warmest months on record for states across the U.S.

The heat and high levels of dryness across the country have left 87% of the United States in dry or drought conditions. Widespread drought increases the risk of wildfires, as soil with no moisture burns more easily.

Mark Svoboda, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, calls the combination of heat and dryness a "double whammy."

New Jersey and Delaware had their driest Octobers on record, and much of the Atlantic Seaboard experienced Octobers with precipitation levels much below average. The region has seen hundreds of wildfires due to these conditions, with New Jersey experiencing a 1,300% increase in fire calls.

In October, much of the United States experienced drought, with dryness expanding and increasing in the Northeast, Great Lakes, Northern Rockies and Plains, Southeast, Deep South, Southwest and the Hawaiian islands.

NOAA says that by February 2025, drought conditions should improve in the Pacific Northwest, Ohio Valley and Western Great Lakes, but are likely to expand and intensify in the Southwest and Atlantic Seaboard.

Despite the destruction they cause, tropical storms can "make or break" drought for the winter, said Svoboda. Without intense rains earlier in the year, there is little or no moisture in the ground come winter.

The dryness impacts wheat crops and livestock forage, potentially increasing food prices. Dryer soil makes wheat crops more vulnerable in colder temperatures because that soil can freeze and kill the plant, decreasing the harvest for the following year.

NOAA also reported that in 2024, 24 different billion-dollar weather and climate disasters impacted the United States through the end of October. This number is only second to last year, with a record 27 individual billion-dollar weather and climate disasters by October.

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin

Each year, world leaders, climate scientists and environmental advocates gather at COP, the U.N. global climate conference. And each year, getting a handle on the climate crisis becomes more urgent. Another year of lives lost to human-amplified extreme weather. Another year of billion-dollar natural disasters unending people's livelihoods.

But even in the face of this great urgency, some countries have decided not to attend this year's conference.

One of the most surprising no-shows was Papua New Guinea, which boycotted the conference. While criticism of COP is nothing new, it is uncommon for a country to skip it altogether.

"Our non-attendance this year will signal our protest at the big nations," Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape announced in August. "These industrialized nations who are big carbon footprint holders for their lack of quick support to those who are victims of climate change, and those of us who are forest and ocean nations."

The prime minister focused on the historical lack of follow-through and the impact of the climate crisis on the most vulnerable, which he says doesn't end when the conference concludes.

"We are protesting to those who are always coming into these COP meetings, making pronouncements and pledges, yet the financing of these pledges seem distant from victims of climate change and those like PNG who hold substantial forests," he said.

"Our economy needs money yet we are preserving trees as the lungs of the earth, whilst industrialized nations keep on emitting. You have not paid for any conservation," Marape added.

Argentina sent a delegation to COP29 for week one of the conference but left unexpectedly after Argentinian President Javier Milei withdrew the entire Argentinian cohort.

The newly elected far-right president is a staunch climate change denier. Pulling all 85 Argentinian delegates from COP29 triggered concerns about Milei withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, a move he threatened during his presidential campaign last year.

State leaders from many G20 countries have also skipped this year's conference, including the United States, India, Australia, China, Germany, Japan and France. However, all those nations sent delegates to represent their countries.

France's top climate official is boycotting COP29 after Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev criticized the country. Aliyev called the French territories of Algeria and French Polynesia "colonies," and accused France of "environmental degradation" and "brutally suppressing" small island nations.

When announcing her decision not to attend, Anges Pannier-Runacher, France's minister of ecological transition, energy, climate and risk prevention, called Aliyev's comments "unacceptable" and "unjustifiable," adding that Aliyev used his position at COP29 for an "unworthy personal agenda."

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin