Ratan Kumar once battled India's brutal summers with damp bedsheets and midnight baths. Now he is among millions upon millions of Indians using air conditioning -- helping make the world hotter still.

Leaders from around the world are arriving for the ceremonial opening of the climate conference in southern Poland that will discuss ways of curbing climate change.

The two-week conference in Katowice is expected to work out how governments can report on their efforts to reduce green gas emission and keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), as agreed in 2015 in Paris.

Environment-friendly finance is blooming thanks to investors willing to weigh profits against ecology, but decisions about meaningful investments can be complex.

Coal remains the most widely used means of electricity production in the world. It also happens to be the biggest emitter of climate-changing carbon dioxide of any fuel.

Flights were cancelled, railway lines closed and motorists stranded on flooded roads, as a month's worth of rain fell on Sydney early Wednesday, leaving emergency services battling to respond.

Severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall lashed Australia's largest city, with the local Bureau of Meteorology reporting more than 106 millimetres of rain fell in some places within a few hours.

High up in Lebanon's mountains, the lifeless grey trunks of dead cedar trees stand stark in the deep green forest, witnesses of the climate change that has ravaged them.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he doesn't believe his own government's report last week warning of massive economic losses if carbon emissions continue to feed climate change unchecked.

Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten plans to use dead fish to power some of its ships, it said on Monday, as it seeks to reduce its pollution and climate change impact.

Leftover dead fish from Norway's large fishing industry will be mixed with other organic waste to make a liquefied biogas to be used instead of heavy fuel oil, said Hurtigruten, which runs cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other locations.

Swiss voters on Sunday appeared set to reject a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve cow horns while approving a law that gives insurance companies broad leeway to spy on suspected welfare cheats.

Dust storms, raging bushfires, gale-force winds, heatwaves, thunder and snow, flash flooding and driving rain -- Australia is enduring a bout of wild weather that's hit all parts of the vast continent in recent days.

Varied weather is not uncommon during spring in the southern hemisphere nation as summer beckons.