Tens of millions of trees in California are now at risk because of sustained drought, according to new research.

And a different study in a different journal foresees a parched future for the evergreen forests not just in the Golden State but in the entire U.S. southwest.

Denmark produced 42% of its electricity from wind turbines last year according to official data, the highest figure yet recorded worldwide.

The new year-end figures showed a 3% rise on 2014, which was itself a record year for Danish wind energy generation.

Climate scientists are predicting that 2015 will be the hottest year on record “by a mile”, with the increase in worldwide average temperatures dramatically undermining the idea that global warming has stopped – as some climate-change skeptics claim.

Even though there are still several months left in the year to gather temperature readings from around the world, climate researchers believe nothing short of a Krakatoa-sized volcanic eruption that cuts out sunlight for months on end can now stop last year’s record being beaten.

It is the first major meeting of politicians and business leaders since 195 nations struck a landmark deal to limit carbon emissions in Paris in December.

Thousands of luminaries have come to a Swiss ski resort to unpack the opportunities and challenges of the future. ‘Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ is the theme meant to guide high-powered panel sessions.

A cold snap gripped Hong Kong on Sunday, with residents shivering as temperatures plunged to the lowest point in nearly 60 years and frost dusted the mountaintops of a city accustomed to a subtropical climate.

Weather officials issued a frost warning saying an "intense cold surge" was in place, coupled with chilling monsoon winds.

The world will need to spend more than $16trn (£10.55trn) over the next 15 years to leave it with any chance of meeting the hugely ambitious climate change targets agreed in Paris over the weekend, according to new figures.

The sheer enormity of the task ahead began to emerge as analysts started to translate what the new global warming and carbon emissions goals would mean in reality.

A hurricane has formed far out in the Atlantic Ocean, the first time such an event has happened in January since 1938, US officials said.

Hurricane Alex’s maximum sustained winds were near 85mph (140kmh) and residents of Portugal’s mid-Atlantic Azores islands were warned to expect waves up to 60ft (18 metres) high and wind gusts up to 100mph.

A deadly blaze aboard a train sparked a wildfire in Cape Town Thursday, as strong winds and high temperatures also sent flames ripping through vineyards in South Africa's prime winelands.

A body was found in one of two burnt-out carriages on the commuter train after it made an emergency stop near Fish Hoek village on Cape Town's southern peninsula, police said.

Humanity must stop burning coal, oil and gas to power the global economy or face an irreversible climate catastrophe, scientists,  business chiefs and analysts warned at an elite gathering in the Swiss Alps.

Barely five weeks after the world hailed a 195-nation Paris accord to stop global warming, plummeting oil prices have thrown into perspective the challenge of bringing about its promised energy revolution.

Blistering heat blanketed the Earth last year like never before, making 2015 by far the hottest year in modern times and raising new concerns about the accelerating pace of climate change.

Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since 1880, it shattered the previous record held in 2014 by the widest margin ever observed, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.