UN talks to implement the landmark Paris climate pact opened in Marrakesh on Monday, buoyed by gathering momentum but threatened by the spectre of climate change denier Donald Trump in the White House.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (LRI), in partnership with the Shouf Biosphere Reserve and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Byblos Bank, and Radio One, organized a planting day in Maaser El Chouf as part of the #لتضل_عالعلم national awareness campaign for this year.

The campaign, which started in October 2016, included TV and radio spots and interviews, social media awareness raising infographics, and a digital ad displayed in Beirut and greater Beirut.

On Sunday, October 30th, UN-Habitat hosted a day-long Cleaning Campaign Event in the neighborhood of Haddadine, Tripoli in Lebanon. In partnership with the Municipality of Tripoli, the Ahal El Ataa Scouts, LaVajet Cleaning Company, the Development for People and Nature Association (DPNA) and Utopia, the cleaning event aimed to spread awareness about the importance of managing solid waste through community action.

The Cleaning Campaign Day event was part of the larger Solid Waste Management program that stemmed from the Neighborhood Profile on Haddadine developed by UN-Habitat in Lebanon. This event kicked off the larger cleaning and awareness campaign directed at empowering local communities to take charge of their environments.

Diplomats gather next week for a fresh round of U.N. climate talks in Morocco, but all eyes will be on the US where presidential elections may determine the planet's future.

Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has described global warming as a "hoax", said in May he would "cancel" the climate-rescue Paris Agreement if elected leader of the free world.

The Middle East's first factory to suck carbon dioxide out of the air has begun operating in the United Arab Emirates, developers and a minister said Saturday.

John Kerry, an ardent champion of the fight against climate change, will become the first top US diplomat to visit Antarctica, where the world's largest protected marine reserve was just created.

Some 1,800 primary schools in New Delhi were ordered to shut down Saturday as the Indian capital grapples with some of the worst pollution in recent years, an official said.

Thousands of citizens of Pakistan's Lahore, one the world's most polluted cities, complained Thursday of breathing difficulties and irritable eyes as a blanket of thick smog was forecast to persist for several days.

The world's nations must urgently ramp up commitments to cut planet-warming carbon emissions to avoid "human tragedy," the United Nations warned on Thursday.

As they stand, the measures -- which do not kick in until 2020 -- would still allow average global temperatures to climb as high as 3.4 degrees Celsius (6.1 degrees Fahrenheit) by century's end, a recipe for massive climate damage, the UN Environment Programme said in its annual "Emissions Gap" report.

Diplomats from 196 nations gather from Monday for 12-day UN climate talks tasked with charting a path for capping global warming at "well below" two degree Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial era levels.