SCIENCE

Just days before the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, the announcement is in line with commitments made by the centre-left coalition government when it took power in 2021.

Levels of the most dangerous particles -- PM2.5, so tiny they can enter the bloodstream -- were 588 per cubic metre early on Thursday morning, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

In Africa, glaciers in all World Heritage sites will very likely be gone by 2050, including at Kilimanjaro National Park and Mount Kenya, UNESCO warned.

Felix Mauricio, a member of the Uru Indigenous community, used to be a fisherman. Now 82, he gazes over a barren landscape and chews coca leaf to suppress the hunger pains.

In Africa, home to more than 95 percent of the world's 627,000 malaria deaths in 2020, the parasite is mostly spread in rural areas preferred by the dominant Anopheles gambiae group of mosquitoes.

Climate change, pollution and exploitation by man are putting existential pressure on the world's second longest river, on which half a billion people depend for survival.

The December mission will test the entire system for the first time, involving the company's 230-foot (70-meter) Super Heavy booster to lift the 160-foot (50-meter) Starship spacecraft into orbit.

Warming temperatures due to climate change are also increasing the intensity and frequency of Africa's rains, according to United Nations climate experts.

The mercury has been rising well above the norm across vast swathes of Europe, from Spain to as far north as Sweden.

Human activity and climate change have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where -- with its twin river the Euphrates -- it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilisation thousands of years ago.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

Some regions felt it far more sharply and frequently than others, according to a report based on peer-reviewed methods from Climate Central, a climate science think tank.

Representatives from around the world will meet from Nov. 6-18 at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt to try to agree pledges to limit warming to below 2C above pre-industrial levels and ideally to 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

The United Nations Environment Programme, in its annual Emissions Gap report, found that updated national promises since last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow would only shave less than one percent off global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Only last year the IEA said there was "no clear peak in sight" in energy emissions, but the new higher investment in wind and solar is setting up demand for all fossil fuels to peak or plateau, leading to a drop in emissions.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030 is needed to limit warming to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures.

The combined climate pledges of more than 190 nations that signed up to the 2015 Paris climate deal put Earth on track to warm around 2.5C (36 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels by the century's end, the UN said.

The new rules are part of the implementation of a law the city-state passed last year that allowed the EMA to set greenhouse gas emissions standards.

The floods, blamed by the government on heavy rain and a water release from a dam in neighbouring Cameroon, have killed more than 600 people, displaced around 1.4 million and damaged or destroyed 440,000 hectares of farmland across Nigeria.

Climate change is already playing a role, as floods, droughts and heatwaves batter harvests from Europe to Asia and threaten famine in the Horn of Africa.

In the beleaguered capital of N'Djamena, a field of tents has sprung up to provide emergency shelter and victims are striving to salvage what they can from the ruins of their homes.

Forecast rainfall across Victoria state is unlikely to trigger more major flooding, although parts of Australia's east are likely to receive up to 100 mm (4 inches) of rain over the next five days.

Despite the wild weather having eased, major flood warnings remain across wide swaths of southeast after the region received more than a month's total rainfall over two days last week.

The closure caused major delays for motorists for whom the bridge, known as the Dartford Crossing, is the only way to cross the Thames to the east of London.

An estimated 500 gorillas and more than 200 elephants -- both endangered species -- roam the reserve's 264,000 hectares (652,000 acres).

State leader Daniel Andrews told reporters 500 homes in Victoria had been "inundated", while a further 500 properties were surrounded by floods and cut off from emergency services.

A so-called block or blocking pattern in the winter can bring stable, often wind-free weather accompanied by freezing temperatures.

NASA has targeted Nov. 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next-generation rocketship, the U.S.

The world's wildlife populations have declined by more than two-thirds since 1970 as forests have been cleared and oceans polluted, according to an assessment released on Thursday.