The black pearl of Tahiti is at the heart of French Polynesia's economy but is now highly vulnerable to climate change, and its fragile existence underlines – in a small but exquisite way – what is at stake in U.N. climate talks starting in Paris this month.

"We would be much happier not to have to deal with climate warming," said Teva Rohfritsch, the minister in charge of what is dubbed the "blue economy".

Tim Krantz still remembers a time when the pollution in Los Angeles was so bad it turned the sky yellow, making it hard to breathe and irritating the eyes.

Today, the skies over the city are clear enough to see the Pacific Ocean from the Hollywood hills or the San Gabriel Mountains to the north.

Nearly 690 million of the world's 2.3 billion children live in areas most exposed to climate change, facing higher rates of death, poverty and disease from global warming, the UN children's agency said Tuesday.

Almost 530 million children live in countries hardest-hit by high floods and tropical storms, mostly in Asia.

Still reeling from the worst terrorist attacks in French history, Paris will host nearly 140 world leaders gathering next week to spearhead a climate pact tasked with keeping Earth livable for humanity.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday urged others to follow his example and come to the French capital to show that "a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business."

India will urge rich nations to deliver "climate justice" for developing countries at a major environmental conference in Paris later this month, the environment minister has said in an interview with AFP.

Prakash Javadekar called on industrialized countries to commit to more stringent targets to free up "carbon space" for the developing world to generate emissions as a necessary byproduct of growth.

The torrent of mud and toxic mineral waste that buried a Brazilian village earlier this month has reached the Atlantic Ocean after a long passage down the Doce river, officials said.

Environment Ministry officials told local media the sludge arrived Saturday at the mouth of the Doce River, and could extend some six miles (nine kilometers) into the ocean.

Every credible plan to save humanity from global warming reserves a key role for a green energy technology called carbon capture and storage. 

But there's a problem: no one has figured out a viable way to pay for it. 

The Paris attacks are affecting preparations for the climate change conference in the French capital, but leaders are still focussed on clinching a deal, a U.N. envoy said Friday.

"World leaders, one after the other, are reconfirming that they are going to Paris because they think this is an important event," said Janos Pasztor, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General on climate change.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Friday that the Obama administration’s “all of the above” approach to energy sources means it seeks to reduce carbon dioxide from the energy sector.

Moniz sought to clarify the “all of the above” policy, saying that while certain energy sources such as wind and solar have no carbon emissions, the administration is truly committed to all forms of energy, including fossil fuels.

A major glacier in Greenland that holds enough water to raise global sea levels by half a meter has begun to crumble into the North Atlantic Ocean, scientists say.

The huge Zachariae Isstrom glacier in northeast Greenland started to melt rapidly in 2012 and is now breaking up into large icebergs where the glacier meets the sea, monitoring has revealed.