Slightly higher levels of radioactivity detected in northern Europe last week are likely linked to a nuclear reactor, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Friday, stressing it posed no risk.

Amazon forest fires in Brazil increased by 19.5 percent in June compared to the same month last year, making it the worst June in 13 years, authorities revealed on Wednesday.

Retailers in Japan began charging for plastic bags on Wednesday, a move aimed at curbing Japanese consumers' love for packaging and finally bringing the country in line with other major economies.

The South Pole has warmed three times faster than the rest of the planet in the last 30 years due to warmer tropical ocean temperatures, new research has showed.

Several dozen climate activists occupied two opencast coal mines in Germany on Friday hoping to put pressure on the government to accelerate plans to phase out the polluting fossil fuel.

A massive cloud of Saharan dust darkened much of Cuba on Wednesday and began to affect air quality in Florida, sparking warnings to people with respiratory illnesses to stay home.

Scientists have found bits of polystyrene in the guts of tiny, soil-dwelling organisms in the Antarctic, raising concern that microplastics pollution has already "deeply" entered the world's most remote land-based food systems.

Investment funds managing close to $4 trillion in assets called on Brazil Tuesday to halt deforestation of the Amazon in an open letter warning that biodiversity loss and carbon emissions pose a "systemic risk" to their portfolios. 

A citizens' council set up by President Emmanuel Macron to explore measures for cutting carbon emissions urged the French leader on Sunday to hold a referendum on making the destruction of nature a crime.

Business as usual is not an option once the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, who wants new climate-laced metrics to measure growth beyond the blunt instrument of GDP.