China has established a single network to monitor air pollution levels across the country, as the government attempts to control the spread of information about the country's toxic smog in response to rising public anger.

As the planet warms due to climate change and hot days become more common, the U.S. electrical grid could be unable to meet peak energy needs by century's end, researchers have warned.

The cost to upgrade the U.S. electrical grid so it could cope with peak demands may be on the order of $180 billion, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A zoo in central Israel on Monday announced the rare birth of a white rhinoceros, an endangered species.

Desert state Qatar recorded the lowest ever temperature in the country's history on Sunday, just 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a statement posted online by state media.

The soupy gray smog shrouding Polish cities this winter is one of the most visible symptoms of the EU member's addiction to coal, a deadly habit forcing many to stay indoors or don masks before venturing out.

Gale-force winds battered France's southwestern Atlantic coast on Saturday, leaving more than quarter of million homes without power, the national electricity grid Enedis said. 

Oil companies underestimating the global market for electric vehicles could be caught unaware by weakened demand for petrol within a decade, analysts said Wednesday.

Falling costs of electric cars and renewable technology may halt growth in oil demand from as early as 2020, they argued in a report.

German banking giant Deutsche Bank has announced it would stop financing coal projects as part of its commitments under the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming.

Authorities have detained 43 people suspected of stoking some of the deadly Chilean forest fires that have killed 11 people and destroyed large swaths of land, President Michelle Bachelet said.

For nearly two weeks, fires have raged across seven regions in south and central Chile, devastating more than 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres), Bachelet said in her latest update on the tragedy.

A British court on Thursday blocked pollution claims against Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell by more than 40,000 Niger Delta residents demanding action over decades of oil spills in the region.