Nepal has successfully drained part of a giant glacial lake near Mount Everest, averting risk of a disastrous flood that could have threatened thousands of lives, officials said Monday.

Scientists say climate change is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, creating huge glacial lakes which could burst their banks and devastate mountain communities.

Iran's vice president and environment chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has told AFP that the West's failure to fully implement the nuclear deal and lift sanctions are endangering her country's efforts to meet climate targets.

Agreement was reached Friday to create a vast US and New Zealand-backed Antarctic marine sanctuary in the Ross Sea -- the world's largest -- at a meeting of the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Hobart.

In the crosshairs of anti-whaling nations, Japan defended its annual Southern Ocean whale hunt, insisting it was gathering scientific data even as detractors accused it Thursday of harvesting meat under false pretenses.

Australia is set to experience more heatwaves, with record-breaking hot weather becoming "normal" across the continent as climate change pushes up land and sea temperatures, a government report warned Thursday.

The biannual State of the Climate report from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and national science body CSIRO said Australia was already experiencing more extremely hot days and severe fire seasons, and projections showed temperatures would likely keep rising.

A large glacier in West Antarctica lost up to half a kilometer in thickness in seven years, thinning more quickly than scientists thought possible, according to a study released Tuesday.

The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere averaged a record 400 parts per million in 2015, an ominous milestone for the planet's health, the U.N. said Monday. 

Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo accused US President Barack Obama on Sunday of hypocrisy for allowing fracking and other fossil fuel extraction while presenting himself as a green president.

The Oscar-nominated "Spotlight" and "Avengers" actor spoke out at a rally in Los Angeles protesting against man-made climate change and, in particular, the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, the site of escalating protests in recent weeks.

Hungry Philippine typhoon survivors huddled in makeshift shelters and waited for aid on Friday, after losing nearly everything from one of the most powerful storms to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Super Typhoon Haima struck on Wednesday night with winds similar to those of catastrophic Haiyan in 2013, which was then the strongest storm to hit the disaster-prone country and claimed more than 7,350 lives.

More than a thousand stray dogs have been poisoned to death by municipal workers in Karachi after a deluge of complaints about animals biting women and children, an official said Wednesday.