The Pacific's low-lying reef islands are likely to change shape in response to climate change, rather than simply sinking beneath rising seas and becoming uninhabitable as previously assumed, new research has found.

Atoll nations such as Tuvalu, Tokelau and Kiribati lie only a few metres above sea level and are considered the world's most vulnerable to global warming, with fears their populations will become climate refugees as waters rise.

On the shores of Lake Malawi, a crowd eagerly awaits the arrival of a white and yellow cedarwood boat carrying its haul.

Tropical Storm Barry buffeted the US state of Louisiana on Sunday, bringing warnings of heavy rain and possible tornadoes even as it weakened.

Millions of residents in Louisiana on Friday braced for impact from Tropical Storm Barry, which is threatening the southern US state and its largest city New Orleans with potentially disastrous rainfall and flooding.

Sharks -- the sea's top predators for millions of years -- are at risk of disappearing from the Mediterranean as overfishing and plastic pollution choke populations of the endangered hunters, conservationists warned Friday.

A range of British music artists, labels and studios banded together Friday to declare a climate and ecological emergency and pledged to rethink their environmental impact.

Six people died and at least 23 were injured as a fierce storm tore through a beachfront in one of Greece's top tourist areas, terrifying thousands of holidaymakers caught in the open, authorities said Thursday.

Millions of tiny caterpillars that shoot toxic hairs have triggered a health scare in the Netherlands, with hundreds of people seeking medical help for symptoms including severe skin irritation and asthma attacks.

The impacts of climate change and increasing inequality across and within countries are undermining progress on the sustainable development agenda, threatening to reverse many of the gains made over the last decades that have improved people’s lives, warns the United Nations’ latest report on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Launched on the opening day of the U.N. High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, a critical annual stocktaking event, the report, which is based on the latest available data, remains the “cornerstone for measuring progress and identifying gaps in the implementation of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” the U.N. said in a statement.

Paris, which in 2015 hosted the signing of a historic agreement on fighting global warming, on Tuesday declared a climate emergency following similar moves by other cities and national parliaments.