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

Before a single delegate arrived in Azerbaijan for COP29, the U.N. climate conference, the event was being billed as the “finance COP.” The expectation was that world climate leaders would reach an agreement on how to fund global efforts to curb climate change and aid developing countries who are bearing a great burden of climate-related loss and damage.

From highlighting global policy advancements to the gaps in funding climate progress, Thursday’s conference activities had a clear message: invest now.

Leaders from the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy published a report on how well the world is doing in reaching net zero, a state where the carbon emissions we generate can be absorbed and stored by nature or technology. To be in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, countries must be on target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

While the report indicated significant advancement in achieving net zero, it found that emissions reduction efforts are not ambitious enough to meet the 2050 target.

During his remarks on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres pushed for businesses, financial institutions and governments to all work towards more aggressive net zero policies while maintaining high levels of transparency.

“We need a massive global effort to steer our world onto a path to safety; a path to net zero by mid-century. Cities and regions, businesses and financial institutions play a pivotal role. And you are out in the front: Helping consumers, investors and regulators understand what credible net zero looks like,” the Secretary-General said.

But to make those policies possible, the money must be there.

Since COP26, the Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance has released a report on how much it could cost to meet the Paris Agreement targets. In their latest report, they estimate that $6.5 trillion is needed yearly by 2030.

“The transition to clean, low-carbon energy, building resilience to the impacts of climate change, coping with loss and damage, protecting nature and biodiversity, and ensuring a just transition, require a rapid step-up in investment in all countries,” the report stated.

The question of who pays is a heated topic. Delegates are using their time in Baku to negotiate a global finance agreement. Whether they can come to an agreement is yet to be seen.

The report, however, emphasized the importance of acting now.

“Any shortfall in investment before 2030 will place added pressure on the years that follow, creating a steeper and potentially more costly path to climate stability,” the report continued. “The less the world achieves now, the more we will need to invest later.”

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin

As world climate leaders meet in Azerbaijan at this year's climate conference, COP29, a new report warns that their efforts to curb climate change have "flatlined" since 2021.

Researchers from Climate Action Tracker, an independent project tracking government action on climate change, say their report demonstrates "a critical disconnect" between the impacts of climate change and political action to address it.

"Despite an escalating climate crisis marked by unprecedented wildfires, storms, floods, and droughts, our annual global temperature update shows global warming projections for 2100 are flatlining, with no improvement since 2021," the study says. "The aggregate effect of current policies set the world on a path toward 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming."

The 2.7 degrees estimate is significantly higher than the 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels limit called for in the Paris Agreement. Scientists say the world must stay below 1.5 degrees to "significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change."

"We are clearly failing to bend the curve. As the world edges closer to these dangerous climate thresholds, the need for immediate, stronger action to reverse this trend becomes ever more urgent," Sofia Gonzales-Zuniga of Climate Analytics, the report's lead author, said.

Gonzales-Zuniga did, however, caution that the 2.7 degree metric was a median estimate and the actual warming number has a 50% chance of being above or below 2.7 degree Celsius.

"But our knowledge of the climate system tells us that there is a 33% chance of our projection being 3.0 degrees Celsius - or higher - and a 10% chance of being 3.6 degrees Celsius or higher, an absolutely catastrophic level of warming," she added.

The world's governments are currently developing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which happens every five years as a part of the Paris Agreement. NDCs are climate action plans showing countries' emissions reduction goals through 2035.

The Climate Action Tracker also calculated the potential impact of President-elect Donald Trump's possible climate regulation rollbacks as laid out in Project 2025.

Researchers found that if the impact is limited to the U.S., warming could increase by 0.04 degrees Celsius. However, if other countries follow suit, there could be a much more significant negative impact.

"Clearly, we won't know the full impact of the U.S. elections until President-Elect Trump takes office, but there is a clean energy momentum in the U.S. now that will be difficult to stop," Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said. "While the Trump administration will undoubtedly do its best to throw a wrecking ball into climate action, the clean energy momentum created by President Biden, being actioned across the country, is likely to continue at a significant scale."

"The key issue is whether countries stick together and continue to move forward with action, a Trump rollback of U.S. policies, as damaging as it is, can be overcome," he added.

-ABC News Climate Unit's Kelly Livingston

After a yearslong deadlock, delegates at COP29, the U.N. global climate conference, have finally reached an agreement on international carbon market standards, a critical step in launching a global carbon market.

The new global carbon market would standardize the issuing, trading and redeeming of carbon credits. A carbon credit is a voucher representing a specific amount of greenhouse gas reduction or removal from the atmosphere. Individuals, businesses, organizations and countries can use carbon credits to offset an action that produces emissions -- for example, paying for tree planting to offset the emissions from a factory or an airplane flight.

Presently, carbon trading markets are run by various organizations with little to no regulation or universal standards. However, a U.N.-backed global carbon market would provide the financial and regulatory support of the international governing body.

U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said the new global carbon market will help countries implement their climate plans faster and cheaper, driving down emissions. Since this will be an open international market, companies, organizations and individuals could utilize the market to meet their voluntary climate targets, regardless of their nation’s participation.

A U.N.-backed global climate market would also bring significant financial benefits to the global market. Yalchin Rafiyev, COP29 lead negotiator, said this new market will be a game-changing tool that directs resources to the developing world and helps save up to $250 billion a year on climate plan implementation.

The International Emissions Trading Association, a nonprofit business group that supports global carbon markets, said that within a few years, the implementation of the U.N.-back carbon market not only has the potential to save the global economy billions of dollars per year, but could also cut approximately 5 billion metric tons of carbon output annually.

While a path has been cleared for this new carbon market to become operational, COP29 negotiators said there is still more work to do before it can be launched. Discussions will continue through the end of the conference to address any additional questions and concerns.

-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck and ABC News Climate Unit's Matthew Glasser

Day three of COP29, the global U.N. climate conference, highlighted how challenging it will be for the world to transition away from fossil fuels. As some countries are making new commitments to reduce emissions and ramp up clean energy production, others are advocating for the continued use of fossil fuels.

Joining the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, Brazil announced its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) plans on Wednesday. NDCs are each country's plan for achieving the goals outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. Brazil has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 59% to 67% by 2035.

"Cutting emissions by 67% by 2035 could put Brazil on a pathway to reach net-zero by 2050," said Karen Silverwood-Cope, climate director of WRI Brasil.

Brazil is hosting next year's COP, and Silverwood-Cope said the country has "a responsibility to lead by example and aim high."

But Silverwood-Cope also pointed out that Brazil's NDC does not include a plan for reducing fossil fuel emissions. Instead, they are pledging to increase biofuel production. Biofuel is produced from renewable biological sources, including plants and algae. In Brazil, biofuel primarily comes from soybean oil. As a country with a history of mass deforestation, the loss of vegetation and forests for energy is controversial.

"Instead of saying that they're going to reduce oil consumption in the country, they are betting on biofuels," said Silverwood-Cope.

She said Brazil plans to use denigrated land for biofuel production. Deingrated land is land that has already been deforested.

As Brazil announced its new, stronger climate pledge, another South American country moved in the opposite direction by literally walking out of the conference.

Argentinian President Javier Milei ordered the country's COP29 representatives to withdraw from the conference and return home. Milei, the country's newly-elected, far-right president, has a history of climate change denial.

Despite the drama, delegates came to some agreements, including using more nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels.

The United States, El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria and Türkiye endorsed a declaration calling for tripling the use of nuclear energy by 2050.

Italy also voiced its support for more nuclear energy and touted its ongoing investment in nuclear fusion research. Unlike current nuclear reactors, nuclear fusion doesn't create radioactive waste. Despite billions of dollars in research funding, the technology has yet to be developed commercially.

"We must use all available technologies. Not only renewables, but also gas, biofuels, hydrogen, CO2 capture, and, in the future, nuclear fusion," said Italian President Giorgia Meloni. "Italy is at the forefront on nuclear fusion."

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin