Climate and environment updates: Dangerous hurricanes made worse by climate change

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

Hurricanes are getting stronger, and humans are primarily to blame. A new study from Climate Central adds to a growing body of evidence that human-amplified climate change is indeed leading to more intense storms.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, found that 84% of Atlantic hurricanes between 2019 and 2023 were, on average, 18 mph stronger because of climate change. That additional wind speed resulted in 30 hurricanes reaching an entire category higher in strength (Category 3 to Category 4 or Category 4 to Category 5, for example) compared to a world without human-amplified climate change.

The researchers say sea surface temperatures are being made hotter by global warming, fueling these rapidly intensifying cyclones. The authors cite Hurricane Milton as an example. They found that Milton intensified by 120 mph in under 36 hours. At the time, ocean temperatures were at record levels or near record levels, which Climate Central's Climate Shift Index: Ocean determined were made 400 to 800 times more likely by climate change.

Over the past half-century, the ocean has stored more than 90% of the excess energy trapped in Earth’s system by greenhouse gases and other factors, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Every hurricane in 2024 was stronger than it would have been 100 years ago," Dr. Daniel Gilford, climate scientist at Climate Central and lead author of the study and report, said in a statement. "Through record-breaking ocean warming, human carbon pollution is worsening hurricane catastrophes in our communities."

The researchers identified three storms between 2019 and 2023 that became Category 5 hurricanes, the highest level on the scale, because of our changing climate.

When the scientists applied the same study methodology to storms in 2024, they determined it was unlikely Beryl and Milton would have reached Category 5 status without the impact of climate change. And they found that every Atlantic hurricane in 2024 saw an increased maximum wind speed, ranging from 9 to 28 mph, because human-amplified climate change resulted in elevated ocean temperatures.

Since 1980, tropical cyclones, a generic term for hurricanes and tropical storms, have cost communities $1.4 trillion in damages and claimed more than 7,200 lives, according to The National Center for Environmental Information.

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

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced $325 million in funding to the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) for global clean energy projects. The funding comes as climate leadership conferences continue worldwide, with COP29 underway in Azerbaijan and the G20 summit in Brazil.

The Clean Technology Fund provides money for permanent climate projects for middle-income and developing countries, allowing them to jump the financial hurdle and implement much-needed new green tech and energy.

Projects range from implementing renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, to more efficient energy use in transportation.

Nine countries currently give money to the Fund through grants and loans. Operated by the World Bank, the program distributes money to eligible countries through global development banks.

This financial commitment is another example of the Biden administration trying to lock in climate funding and programs before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Since 2022, the U.S. has contributed $1.56 billion in concessional loans to the fund, and in October of this year, they contributed another $20 million in grants. Since it was established in 2008, the Fund has contributed $7.28 billion in loans and grants globally.

A report released last week highlighted that advancing climate progress in middle-income countries is crucial for setting the world on a path to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. These countries are not only the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, but they also host the majority of the world’s nature and biodiversity.

-ABC News' Charlotte Slovin

As the world's nations try to decide on a plan of action for limiting the impacts of climate change, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme says reducing methane emissions could be the "emergency brake" the world needs.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of the rise in global temperatures since industrialization, according to the International Energy Agency.

"Reducing methane emissions this decade is our emergency brake in the climate remit," Martina Otto, head of the Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition at the UNEP, said at a press conference with the COP29 presidency.

"To cut the emergency we need to harness the fact that methane has a much higher global warming potential and is shorter lived in the atmosphere, which means we can curb near-term warming."

Tuesday is food, water and agriculture day at COP29 – an occasion marked this year by a new agreement to cut methane emissions from food waste.

Over 30 countries have already committed to the Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste, which targets methane emissions from organic waste like food. The move complements additional global efforts to tackle methane emissions, including the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

"Urgent work is needed to help the agricultural sectors adapt to a warming planet," COP29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said.

Rafiyev explained that the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers — an effort launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the COP29 presidency — will give farmers tools for building climate resilience and secure funding.

"We are also committed to taking every opportunity for mitigation, particularly on methane," Rafiyev said, noting previous COP's progress on methane emissions. "We must address all the major sources of methane emissions, including fossil fuels, agriculture and organic waste."

"Transforming agriculture and food systems is going to be critical if we are to achieve the Paris Agreement, whether it's on the side of adaptation and building resilience, or indeed on the side of mitigation," Kaveh Zahedi, director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at the FAO, said. "And on this food, agriculture and water day, we're so delighted that the cop 29 presidency has been shining a light on this."

-ABC News Climate Unit's Kelly Livingston