The Vatican has urged US President Donald Trump to listen to "dissenting voices" and reconsider his position on climate change, saying the United States risked losing its environmental protection leadership to China.

Human societies and a multitude of species are going to be tested by climate change in ways that are barely understood, a new study finds.

For years, the United States pushed China to commit to limiting its fossil fuel use. The countries now look likely to switch roles.

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No matter what the US president does, the physics and chemical impacts of burning coal, oil and gas are uncontroversial.

The film focuses on events from flooding in Miami and the Philippines, the worst drought on record in Syria, to air pollution so bad in some parts of China that life expectancy has declined by six years.

It's the storm surge not the wind that poses the main risk for residents living in Debbie's path.

Two resignations from the board of the Climate Change Authority come with criticism of the Turnbull government.

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The Great Barrier Reef is dying on our watch, and that's almost all we're doing.

Pressure on China's leaders to cut pollution from coal is likely to intensify - potentially hurting Australia's exports - with new research showing Beijing's air quality will get worse with climate change.

The critical reef tourism industry in Queensland is about to take a dive.

The world is 33 months into its biggest recorded coral bleaching event with little sign of it ending, raising the prospect that coral mortality on the Great Barrier Reef will increase "significantly" from the quarter already lost in the past year, scientists say.

The unprecedented death of Australia's northern mangrove forests has been put down to a lack of water.

Over the past three years, almost all of the world's reefs have experienced summertime heat stress.

The great bulk of Australia's largest listed companies are failing to disclose their exposures to climate change.

"It is altering the structure and function of natural ecosystems, and affecting heritage, economic activity and human wellbeing."

Poor countries have contributed the least to human-induced climate change but are already being affected more than richer ones.

Antarctic Bottom Water is a thing, and it's one worth getting into the discussion about the consequences of climate change.

NSW should place a cap on the amount of thermal coal it can mine and plan an orderly phase-out of the industry within a decade to do its bit to avoid catastrophic climate change, NSW Greens say.

Sydney's record-breaking weather juggernaut rolls on, with summer confirmed as the city's hottest for both days and nights over records stretching back 157 years.

There is about 10 per cent less sea ice in Antarctica this year than the previous record minimum.

Australia's greenhouse gas pollution jumped in 2015-16 as coal use continued to rise after the scrapping of the carbon price, making it harder to meet its emissions targets.

Brisbane-based Qantas engineers have spent the best part of the past month installing sensitive atmospheric monitoring sensors on a Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 in a bid to fill a major gap in global climate research.

The sodden and cool tail of February belies the record-breaking summer, with autumn also likely to be unusually warm.

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef are enduring periods of heat stress worse than during last year's record-breaking coral bleaching event.

The Victorian government is demanding the operator of Australia's main electricity grid explain how the state came close to losing electricity during the recent extreme heatwave to ensure NSW avoided power outages, adding to calls for a wider inquiry.

A new wave of solar energy is about to crest and it won't just be households benefiting.

Six ocean hot spots that teem with the biggest mix of species are also getting hit hardest by global warming and industrial fishing, a study has found.

Hundreds of scientists, environmental advocates and their supporters have rallied in Boston to protest what they see as increasing threats to science and research in the US.

The Trump administration is preparing to roll back Obame-era environmental safeguards as Scott Pruitt prepares to take head up the Environmental Protection Agency.