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.

In July 2011, atria – an averda Group company – joined forces with the supermarket chain Spinneys and Nestle Waters to launch a project entitled "Protect Lebanon - Recycle Today" aimed at recycling plastic bottles and cans in Lebanon.

After more than 5 years into the partnership, almost 1,000,000 aluminum cans and in excess of 5.5 million plastic bottles were recycled.

Humanity’s burning of fossil fuels is postponing the next global ice age for at least 100,000 years, according to new research that has discovered the tipping point which plunges the planet into deep freezes.

Showing that human activity, via climate change, can alter global processes like ice ages is compelling evidence that the planet has entered a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene, according to the scientists.

It would be “political suicide” for a British political leader to admit they do not believe in global warming, Sir David Attenborough has argued.

Sir David, the broadcaster and environmental campaigner, said climate change is now widely accepted by the public, with Britain already “come round” to the idea.

Countries can deliver on the promises of the historic Paris climate change agreement by rapid scaling up wind and solar power to 36% of the global energy mix by 2030, an international energy gathering will be told on Saturday.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) meeting in Abu Dhabi – the first major global gathering since Paris – is seen as an important test of countries’ readiness to put those plans into action.

A methane leak in Southern California has forced thousands of people from their homes. Although the gas first began spewing from a leaky underground well in October, the gas company only recently identified the source of the leak.

Now, officials with the company say it could be months before the methane leak is stopped.

Marine protected areas around the world are failing to protect most of the evolutionary diversity of the world's coral and fish, a new study has found.

The study into marine parks was conducted by an international team of researchers and found marine protected areas were not adequately protecting the evolutionary history of corals and fish, which stretches back 7,160 million years and 3,586 million years respectively.