The U.N.'s forecast for global warming is about 15 percent too low, which means end-of-century temperatures could be 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than currently predicted, a study has said.

As New Delhi and other major cities hit new toxic smog peaks, the United Nations sounded the alarm Wednesday over the damage that pollution is doing to babies' developing brains.

Gently, Kenzo the sea turtle is lowered onto a beach where a scattering of bottle caps, candy wrappers, yoghurt cups and discarded flipflops scar an otherwise idyllic setting.

As its human handlers step aside, Kenzo struggles out of the harness, pushes hard with its flippers on the sand, and slides into small waves specked with bits of plastic trash.

Pollution stopped play Sunday in the third Test between India and Sri Lanka, and visiting coach Nic Pothas said the smog was so extreme that his players -- who took the extraordinary step of wearing face masks -- were "coming off the field and vomiting."

Former US president Barack Obama launched a veiled barb at his successor Donald Trump on Friday, saying there is "a pause in American leadership" on climate change.

The open burning of waste in Lebanon poses serious health risks, Human Rights Watch warned in a report released on Friday, blaming decades-old, across the board government failure.

The New York-based watchdog said the crisis, which escalated in 2015 when waste management largely collapsed across Lebanon, was a particular threat for children and old people, and constituted a rights violation.

Burkina Faso and France on Wednesday launched West Africa's biggest solar farm, a 33-megawatt facility designed to power tens of thousands of households and ease dependence on imported energy.

Evacuation centres and hotels in Bali filled up Tuesday with tens of thousands seeking refuge as a volcano on the Indonesian resort island threatened to erupt, forcing the closure of the main airport for a second day. 

Stranded tourists hunted for accommodation while frightened villagers living in Mount Agung's shadow made their way to more than 200 evacuation centres as the mountain gushed smoke and ash.

A Vietnamese court on Monday jailed a blogger for seven years for disseminating anti-state "propaganda" including articles which supported protests against a Taiwanese firm responsible for a toxic leak.

Coral bred in one part of the Great Barrier Reef was successfully transplanted into another area, Australian scientists said Sunday, in a project they hope could restore damaged ecosystems around the world.