Sweden's center-right coalition government said Wednesday it will present legislation that will enable the construction of new nuclear power stations.

"We are now changing the legislation, making it possible to build more reactors in more places than is possible today," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference.

The United Arab Emirates has announced a ban on single-use plastic shopping bags to take effect next year, the latest initiative aimed at reducing pollution in the oil-rich nation.

The law would prohibit the import, production and circulation of such bags from Jan. 1, 2024, according to an announcement carried by the state-run WAM news agency.

Climate change is the global economy's biggest long-term challenge but one the world is least prepared to tackle because of short-term problems led by a cost-of-living crisis, the World Economic Forum said in a report Wednesday.

The group's Global Risks Report, released ahead of its annual gathering of government leaders and business elites next week in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, offers a bleak outlook.

The fate of a tiny village has sparked heated debate in Germany over the country's continued use of coal and whether tackling climate change justifies breaking the law.

Environmental activists were locked in a standoff with police this week around the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne, that's due to be bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby lignite mine.

Storm-ravaged California scrambled to clean up and repair widespread damage on Wednesday as the lashing rain eased in many areas, although the north could see thundershowers Wednesday and another powerful weather front was expected to hit the state Friday.

At least 17 people have died in the storms battering the state. The figure is likely to rise, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday during a visit to the scenic town of Capitola on the Santa Cruz coast that was hard hit by high surf and flooding creek waters last week.

The last eight years were the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a La Nina weather pattern since 2020, the European Union's climate monitoring service said Tuesday.

Average temperatures across 2022 -- which saw a cascade of unprecedented natural disasters made more likely and deadly by climate change -- make it the fifth warmest year since records began in the 19th century, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

A German court on Tuesday began hearing a case against Volkswagen brought by climate group Greenpeace to try to compel the giant group to stop selling petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

The plaintiffs, the two heads of Greenpeace Germany and climate activist Clara Meyer, also want to force the world's second-largest carmaker to reduce emissions by 65 percent by 2030 as compared to 2018. 

Earth's protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says.

A once-every-four-years scientific assessment found recovery in progress, more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth's atmosphere that shields the planet from harmful radiation linked to skin cancer, cataracts and crop damage.

Several hundred climate activists on Tuesday were trying to block the entry of heavy machinery into an abandoned village in Germany which is due to be cleared for the expansion of a coal mine after a German court rejected a last-ditch attempt by the activists to stay there.

The disputed evacuation of the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne has become a battleground between the government and environmentalists.

Protesters gathered in the west German village of Luetzerath on Sunday to challenge the extension of an open-air coal mine they say runs counter to the country's climate commitments.