Governments working on the proposed new global deal on climate change, to be agreed this December, must step up their efforts after a slow week of talks produced little progress, observers have said.

In December, governments will meet in Paris to decide a new global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, which would kick in from 2020 when current international commitments on emissions expire.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dismissed calls Tuesday for a moratorium on new coal mines urged by influential citizens and Pacific leaders who say they contribute to global warming.

Sixty-one prominent Australians, including rugby union's David Pocock and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Doherty, wrote an open letter to world leaders calling for coal exports to be on the agenda at upcoming U.N. climate talks in Paris.

Anti-storm barriers, 17,500 kilometers (10,800 miles) of dykes and dunes and a spirit of constant innovation to hold back the seas.

These are some of the key ingredients which allow the Netherlands to boast that it is the "world's safest delta".

Climate negotiators divided on how to tackle global warming -- and who should foot the bill -- grappled Friday on the final day of crunch talks to finalize a draft agreement ahead of a crucial UN summit.

After four days of haggling in the German city of Bonn, this is the final negotiating day before heads of state and government arrive in Paris for a November 30-December 11 conference tasked with sealing the deal.

The food chains of the world’s oceans are at risk of collapse due to the release of greenhouse gases, overfishing and localized pollution, a stark new analysis shows.

A study of 632 published experiments of the world’s oceans, from tropical to arctic waters, spanning coral reefs and the open seas, found that climate change is whittling away the diversity and abundance of marine species.

Indonesian forest and agricultural fires cloaking Southeast Asia in acrid haze are spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each day than all U.S. economic activity, according to an environmental watchdog.  

The shock assessment came as Jakarta said the number of blazes was increasing across the archipelago despite a multinational fire-fighting effort, and announced plans to deploy more water-bombing aircraft. 

Europe’s climate chief has acknowledged for the first time that climate pledges made by national governments ahead of a major UN conference fall short of meeting the international goal of keeping global warming below 3.6 degrees.

In an interview Monday, Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said the EU’s projections show the current pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions would put the world on a path toward 5.4 degrees of warming.

Spring flowers may arrive as much as three weeks faster over the next century as climate change drives an earlier end to winters in areas of the United States, researchers say in a new report.

The world has a better chance of saving itself from catastrophic global warming now than at any time over the past two decades, according to the scientist behind some of the most alarming predictions ever made for the planet’s future.

Johan Rockström shocked environmentalists in 2009 when he identified nine categories of Nature that were essential for life as we know it, and warned that we had already crossed into dangerous territory on three of them – including climate change.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged nations to look beyond narrow interests at an upcoming world climate conference, warning that "we don't have a planet B."

Complaining that global talks aimed at curbing climate change have so far been "slow" and "frustrating" due to negotiators focusing on "narrow national perspectives," Ban urged member states to work faster.