U.S. billionaire Michael Bloomberg will lead an unprecedented push for  corporations worldwide to reveal their financial exposure to climate change to investors, a banking watchdog announced Friday.

Climate experts warn of huge financial consequences if humanity fails to curb emissions of climate-altering carbon gases, tipping Earth towards a future of rising seas, floods, storms and killer droughts.

Brazil thinks it has the sweet solution to ridding the world of reliance on fossil fuels for cars and other vehicles: sugar cane ethanol 2.0.

Ethanol -- fuel derived from agricultural products -- is already well established in Brazil, where more than 60 percent of 36 million vehicles run on ethanol or ethanol-fuel flex systems, rather than straight petrol or diesel.

High in the sky, a satellite passes over the equatorial forest of west Africa, the Earth's second largest "lung" after the Amazon.

In Ntoum, a village about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Gabon's capital Libreville, a giant satellite dish slowly swings into action, capturing key data on Africa's environmental health.

U.S. House Republicans voted Tuesday to block President Barack Obama's regulations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- a move certain to spark his veto -- as negotiators work on a global climate deal in Paris.

The two measures, rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency's new emission rules for power plants, passed the chamber largely along party lines.

Bill Gates will announce the creation of a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund on Monday at the opening of a Paris summit meeting intended to forge a global accord to cut planet-warming emissions, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Tuesday global warming posed imminent security and economic risks, as negotiators embarked on an 11-day race to seal a U.N. pact aimed at taming climate change.

But, speaking after attending an historic climate summit with 150 other leaders, Obama voiced confidence mankind would make the tough decisions to brake rising temperatures.

Weather-related disasters in the past two decades have killed more than 600,000 people and inflicted economic losses estimated at trillions of dollars, the United Nations said on Monday, warning that the frequency and impact of such events was set to rise.

The figures were released before a United Nations-backed climate meeting, starting next Monday in Paris, at which more than 120 national leaders will try to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and slow the rise in global temperatures.

Luka Kinyere felt the wet, dark volcanic soil in his calloused palm, thankful for the rain that was falling again after a dry spell.

Although the coffee plants in his plantation were turning green, dry conditions had doomed his chances of turning a profit from this year's second harvest.

Despite the organization and funding behind groups which try to cast doubt about the causes and implications of climate change, the facts have spoken. The world continues to warm and their favorite myths have died.

We know that human-emitted heat-trapping gases warm the planet. In fact, this has been known for well over a century. With modern instruments (like ocean thermometers and satellites among others) we are now measuring the change. With advanced climate models, we can predict the changes. The measurements and the predictions are in excellent agreement, despite what cable news and second-rate skeptical scientists say.

Northern China choked under some of the worst smog this year on Monday, with Beijing's pollution soaring to 22 times healthy limits, triggering the city's second-highest air alert on the eve of global climate change talks.

Thick haze blanketed cities across the country after President Xi Jinping arrived in Paris for the talks where China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will be central to discussions.