Coastal residents fleeing a potentially devastating blow from Hurricane Florence encountered empty gasoline pumps and depleted store shelves as the monster storm neared the Carolina coast with 140 mph (225 kph) winds and drenching rain that could last for days.

While some said they planned to stay put despite hurricane watches and warnings that include the homes of more than 5.4 million people on the East Coast, many weren't taking any chances.

Washington's mayor Tuesday declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Florence bears down on the U.S. East Coast, threatening torrential rain and flooding in the capital region.

Governors, mayors, CEOs and billionaire philanthropists gather in San Francisco this week to take aim at global warming as the world awakens to the all-too-real threat of climate change run amuck.

The three-day Global Climate Action Summit, which kicks off Wednesday, will see hundreds of cities, regions and companies worth hundreds of billions pledge to run on solar or wind power within a few decades.

Former U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon and billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates will head an international commission on climate change to launch next month, the Dutch government said Monday.

Record typhoons, biblical floods, heatwaves, landslides and earthquakes: this summer, Japan really has seen it all and images of the destruction caused have been beamed around the world.

The Czech capital Prague has experienced its hottest summer since records started in 1775, the weather institute said on Thursday.  

Norway has completed the frame of the world's tallest timber building, which is being lauded for being environmentally friendly and fire resistant.

The strongest typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years made landfall Tuesday, the country's weather agency said, bringing violent winds and heavy rainfall that prompted evacuation warnings.

A Canadian court on Thursday quashed the government's approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline to the Pacific, siding with indigenous people worried about increased tanker traffic harming whales along the coast.

French President Emmanuel Macron once promised to "make our planet great again", but the shock resignation of his popular environment minister has put his mixed record on green issues under the spotlight.