Governments should focus on "greener" policies to improve the supply and quality of water as climate change and a growing global population threaten the water security of billions, the United Nations said on Monday.

Israel and Jordan have long pursued a common goal to stop the Dead Sea from shrinking while slaking their shared thirst for drinking water with a pipeline from the Red Sea some 200 kilometers away.

Brazil -- the country with the world's greatest fresh water reserves -- hosts an international conference next week on growing fears over the fragility of drinking water supplies in a heating planet.

Under the slogan "sharing water," the 8th World Water Forum will bring together 15 heads of state and government, 300 mayors and dozens of experts in the Brazilian capital Brasilia from Sunday to March 23.

With the number of endangered orcas that frequent the inland waters of Washington state at a 30-year low, Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday directed state agencies to take immediate and longer-term steps to protect the struggling killer whales.

The fish-eating mammals that spend time in Puget Sound have struggled for years with a lack of food, pollution, noise and disturbances from boat traffic. There are now just 76 of the orcas, down from 98 in 1995.

China appears to be "winning" its war on air pollution, making so much progress that life expectancy could rise by more than two years, according to a US university study.

The Louvre briefly evacuated one its busiest rooms on Monday after black-clad environmental activists staged a protest against oil giant Total's patronage of the Paris museum. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for solar projects in developing countries, as world leaders met in India to promote greater investment in renewable energy.

They might be at the bottom of the food chain, but krill could prove to be a secret weapon in the fight against the growing threat of plastic pollution in the world's oceans.

The San Francisco Bay area's Silicon Valley is home to a plethora of wealthy tech companies, but the sinking land beneath risks leading to far worse floods in the years to come, researchers said Wednesday.

Researchers have unveiled a genetic modification that enables plants to use a quarter less water with scant reduction in yield.