A destructive storm marched across the United States, spawning tornadoes that touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where two deaths were reported, and it delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and threatened more severe weather Wednesday in the South.

A young boy was found dead in the Pecan Farms area of Keithville, Louisiana, where his home was destroyed Tuesday after a tornado hit about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Shreveport, and his mother's body was found nearby under debris, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office said early Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged New Zealand to take a leading role in focusing on the environmental destruction his country is suffering as a result of Russia's invasion.

Zelensky delivered his message via video link to lawmakers who packed the debating chamber at 8 a.m. Wednesday. He became just the second foreign leader to address New Zealand's parliament, after Australia's Julia Gillard did so in 2011.

The Group of Seven leading economies have created an open, international climate club for countries that want to cooperate in the fight against global warming, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday after a video conference with other G-7 leaders.

Germany holds the presidency of the G-7 until the end of the year and then passes it on to Japan.

Wildfires that scorched across Europe this year burned a record land area and stoked carbon emissions, according to an update released on Tuesday by Europe's forest fire and satellite monitors. 

The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe's recorded history. The continent suffered blistering heatwaves and the worst drought in centuries, as climate change drives ever longer and stronger hot spells. 

The world's next global pact for nature is doomed without clear mechanisms for implementing targets, conservation groups said Saturday on the sidelines of U.N. talks, as hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Montreal demanding greater action.

One in five cars on Norway's roads are electric, a share that has doubled in less than three years, the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association said Monday.

Next year's U.N. climate talks in the United Arab Emirates must work towards a just and equitable energy transition, the oil-rich host country, seeking a gradual move from fossil fuels, said Friday.

Reducing waste while boosting recycling and reuse, known as the 'circular economy,' will be vital for halting the loss of nature by meeting growing demand with fewer resources and will make communities more resilient to climate change by encouraging more sustainable practices on the African continent, organizers of the World Circular Economy Forum said Wednesday.

The conference, which brings together climate and economic experts as well businesses and think tanks, is being held in the Rwandan capital Kigali — the first ever in the global south.

Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like 2 million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. Today, it's a barren Arctic desert, but back then it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now extinct mastodon.

"The study opens the door into a past that has basically been lost," said lead author Kurt Kjær, a geologist and glacier expert at the University of Copenhagen.

In Kenya's sweltering northern Samburu county, a destructive drought exacerbated by climate change is wreaking havoc on people and wildlife.

After four consecutive years of failed rains causing some of the worst conditions in 40 years, wild animals have become commonplace in the county's villages as they search for food. Many don't survive, providing herders an unfortunate lifeline as they cut chunks of meat from their carcasses.