Industrial nations are starting to answer the question of how they will scale up aid for projects that curb global warming, unleashing development banks to help catalyze investment.

The board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it will increase investment for climate projects to 18 billion euros ($20 billion) by 2020, a boost of about 1 billion euros a year according to a statement from the bank in London. The announcement followed similar decisions over the past week by the European Investment Bank and Asian Development Bank.

More companies are making climate change one of their top sustainability priorities, according to a survey released this week by nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility, which counts big brands like consumer goods giant Unilever and food and beverage maker Coca-Cola among its members.

The annual survey, which polled 440 sustainability workers from nearly 200 companies around the world, aims to provide a snapshot of what environmental and social issues are important to businesses over the coming year.

Lebanon has submitted its climate action plan to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of the new universal climate change agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference in Paris in December 2015.

The Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) is a country's public declaration on what actions it intends to take under a new global agreement aiming at combating climate change. The INDC pairs national policy-setting – in which countries determine their contributions in the context of their national priorities, circumstances and capabilities – with a global framework that drives collective action toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient future.

The gas-rich United Arab Emirates will invest $35 billion in clean energy by 2021 as it seeks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels following crude's global price slide, it said Sunday.

"By 2021, our investments in nuclear and solar projects will reach $35 billion (31 billion euros)," Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi.

The Philippine island of Cebu suffered its seventh straight day of haze on Saturday, the weather bureau said, as Southeast Asian countries battle pollution suspected to emanate from illegal fires on Indonesian plantations.

Monsoon winds blowing northeast from the Indonesian blazes towards the direction of the central Philippines could have carried the smog, state weather forecaster Romeo Aguirre told AFP.

Earth is on track for average warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100, outstripping the U.N. target, said an analysis Thursday of country pledges for curbing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

While exceeding the U.N. goal of limiting overall warming to 2 Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, the number was an improvement on the 3.1 C forecast issued in September by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), a tool developed by a quartet of research bodies.

Indonesia's disaster chief on Thursday defended the country's efforts to fight forest fires that have blanketed Southeast Asia in choking haze, and said he believed rains would arrive within a month to finally douse the blazes.

"Are we able to manage the fires? The answer is clearly a yes... we are not overwhelmed, we can manage it and there is progress," National Disaster Management Agency chief Willem Rampangilei told reporters.

The Philippines pledged on Thursday to cut the archipelago nation's carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030, pending financial support from developed countries.

President Benigno Aquino approved the country's climate change mitigation and adaptation plan, which is set to be implemented after 2020, spokesman Herminio Coloma said in a statement.

Sea-level rise along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts combined with more frequent and violent storms could increase flooding from the Northeast to Texas by several-hundredfold, according to a new study out Monday.

Over the past century, the East Coast has seen sea-level rise far above the 8-inch global average - up to a foot in much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including New York City. It is expected to increase as much as four feet by 2100, mostly due to the melting ice sheets as well as the expansion of the seawater as the oceans warm.

Most people know that global warming spells bad news for polar bears and other creatures that depend on Arctic sea ice. But it could have an unexpected effect on a kind of animal rarely considered in climate change debates: crocodiles.

According to a new study, climate change could lead to a huge population increase and diversification of crocodile species in North America and Europe.