The Middle East is heating at nearly twice the global average, threatening potentially devastating impacts on its people and economies, a new climate study shows.

An international human rights group called Monday on the United Nations to ensure that countries hosting its climate conference commit to meeting human rights standards after it documented instances of repression against environmental groups in Egypt, the host of COP27 later this year.

Human Rights Watch said in a report based on interviews with more than a dozen academics, scientists and activists that government restrictions amount to a violation of basic human rights and throw into question the Egyptian government's ability to meet basic climate commitments.

They literally run the country.

In parking lots, on flatbed trucks, hospital courtyards and rooftops, private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and businesses 24 hours a day.

Thanks to solar energy, residents of the northern Lebanese village of Toula are finally able to enjoy ice cream again -- a treat in a sun-baked country plagued by power cuts.

Ayoub Rumeihat opened his palms to the sky in prayer as he stood among tombstones for Bedouins killed in action while serving the state of Israel.

Finishing the holy words, he gazed at the distant Mediterranean Sea across a valley full of olives and oak where his community has grazed goats for generations.

Yes in Beirut this September, MIDDLE EAST CLEAN ENERGY 2022

The stench is gone and, slowly, the fish are returning to the Emscher, a river through western Germany's industrial heartland that for decades was not just a blot on the landscape but officially deemed an open sewer.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz celebrated the river's revival Thursday, hailing the 30-year effort to rewild the Emscher as an example of the perseverance that the country would also need in transforming its economy to a cleaner, greener future.

It's picking season at Christian Nachtwey's organic orchard in western Germany and laborers are loading their carts with ripe red Elstar apples, ready to be shipped to European supermarkets.

But Nachtwey's farm is also reaping a second harvest: Many of the apple trees grow beneath solar panels that have been producing bountiful electricity during this year's unusually sun-rich summer, while providing the fruit below with much-needed shade.

The head of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency said Friday that advanced nuclear technology will be "critical" for both the United States and Japan as they step up cooperation to meet decarbonization goals.

Michael Regan, after holding talks with his Japanese counterpart Akihiro Nishimura in Tokyo, told a joint news conference that nuclear energy in their countries plays a role and "the opportunities for advanced nuclear technology will be critical if we're going to meet our climate goals."

Planes carrying fresh supplies are surging across a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll surged past 1,200, officials said Friday, with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness.

The ninth flight from the United Arab Emirates and the first from Uzbekistan were the latest to land in Islamabad overnight as a military-backed rescue operation elsewhere in the country reached more of the 3 million people affected by the disaster. Multiple officials blamed the unusual monsoon and flooding on climate change, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who earlier this week called on the world to stop "sleepwalking" through the deadly crisis.