The widest global effort yet to gauge citizens' views on climate change showed 79 percent to be "very concerned" about its effects, but less than half support a carbon tax to curb emissions, organizers said Sunday.

Results of the day-long consultation held in 75 countries on Saturday were posted on the website of the initiative dubbed World Wide Views on Climate and Energy.

In a boost for hopes to curb climate change, China's greenhouse gas emissions will probably peak in 2025, five years earlier than its stated target, a study said Monday.

On current trends, the world's biggest carbon emitter will discharge 12.5-14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2025, after which emissions will decline, it said.

Russia successfully launched a military satellite on Friday, following a recent string of failures for the country's space program.

The military satellite sent into space from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia at 1524 GMT was put into orbit as planned, state news agency TASS reported, quoting a defense ministry spokesman.

Japan may find itself the odd man out when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presents his government's blueprint for combating climate change at this weekend's summit of the world's leading industrialized democracies.

The Group of Seven host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has indicated she supports a pledge of eventual zero carbon emissions. Japan favors coal, gas and nuclear power over green energy despite rapid growth of investment in renewables since all its nuclear reactors were taken offline following the 2011 disaster in Fukushima.

From the typhoon-ravaged Philippines to the Arizona desert, thousands of people began gathering Saturday in small groups in 79 countries for what was touted as the biggest public debate on climate change

Results of the day-long consultations will be submitted to climate change negotiators ahead of a year-end United Nations summit in Paris, where world leaders will gather to forge a new treaty aimed at curbing global warming.

Authorities in Santiago have ordered a day of extraordinary anti-smog measures on Friday, with a week to go before the Chilean capital hosts the opening match of the South American football championships.

Under the so-called "pre-emergency" declared by the Santiago mayor's office, more than 300,000 vehicles must stay off the roads and nearly 800 factories must remain closed.

A 4-mile stretch of beach in south Los Angeles County was closed Thursday after tar balls washed ashore — the latest Southern California coastline to shut down due to oily goo, authorities said.

The Long Beach Fire Department ordered the closure Wednesday night over concerns the material could cause skin irritation or other adverse health effects.

After a high-profile stint as the Philippines' top climate envoy, demanding world powers do more to fight global warming, Yeb Sano is embarking on an epic pilgrimage to force change.

Sano will this weekend begin a global odyssey to places vulnerable to climate change, starting with the cyclone-devastated Pacific island nation of Vanuatu and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Nasha was first to go down, a red-feathered dart sticking out of his thick-skinned rump. Next it was Syrah's turn as Matthew Mutinda, a vet, fired his tranquillizer gun from a low-hovering helicopter.

Minutes later the one-tonne rhinoceros crashed headfirst into the ground in a cloud of dust.

Slovenia's only nuclear plant Krsko said Thursday it has initiated a preventive shutdown over technical problems in the system for monitoring the temperature.

"We have detected technical problems in the system for monitoring the temperature of the primal reactor's cooling," the Krsko nuclear plant said in a statement.