Australia may need to consider delaying its goals to combat global climate change in order to prioritise energy security and economic prosperity, according to a senior coal executive.

Australia's climate research is in "urgent" need of dozens more scientists to help prepare for global warming.

Australia and the rest of the world must keep global temperature increases to 1.2 degrees to save the reef.

Environment groups say they have scored a "massive victory" against coal mining in Sydney's water catchment.

KISS frontman Gene Simmons is thrilled by a newborn calf born with strikingly similar black-and-white markings to the face paint he wears on stage.

Australia smashed its daytime temperature records for July as another poor month for rains left skies relatively clear.

World temperatures are likely to rise by more than two degrees Celsius this century.

The decision by the Berejiklian government to award a major role in the state's new container deposit scheme to Coca-Cola Amatil and other companies opposed to it was an act of stupidity, the NSW Greens say.

Sydney has posted its driest July in more than two decades but the city's parched parks and gardens should soon start to collect some much-needed rain.

​A new technique using artificial intelligence to predict where deforestation is most likely to occur could help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) preserve its shrinking rainforest and cut carbon emissions, researchers have said.

Sydneysiders will be leaving their winter woolies at home on Sunday to welcome what is expected to be the warmest July day on record.

The project to reverse ecological damage in the Murray-Darling Basin is not going well.

Sydney will get a taste of summer this weekend, with temperatures of 26 degrees expected on Sunday, before rain sets in again as the working week returns.

The birds learned to sing from each other, reduced populations mean their song may be lost.

• EXCLUSIVE

The preferred alignment of the proposed F6 Extension takes in sites with some of the "richest concentrations of plant species in temperate Australia".

In the summer of 2010, Russia faced a severe drought, a heat wave and a series of catastrophic wildfires, destroying a third of the country's wheat harvest. Half a year later, the Arab Spring began.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has stoked the controversy over claims of water theft in NSW aired by the ABC, dismissing the report as a ploy to strip more water off rural communities.

Plans to develop an open-cut coal mine in the bucolic Bylong Valley lack key information about the impacts on the landscape, water resources and the community, the state's Planning Assessment Commission has found.

Britain's plans match a similar pledge made this month by France.

Federal-state tensions over water issues have escalated with South Australia demanding Barnaby Joyce, the federal water minister, drop his nomination of an irrigation lobbyist to the Murray Darling Basin Authority's board.

• UPDATED

A severe weather warning has been cancelled for the ACT and parts of southeastern New South Wales, after damaging winds were previously forecast for Wednesday morning.

A top NSW bureaucrat was on Tuesday refusing calls to stand down despite allegedly offering privileged access to government documents to irrigation lobbyists.

The Berejiklian government needs to refer the issues of water theft and industry collusion to the corruption watchdog, green groups say.

The possibilities of quantum computers are much-hyped but even the search for breakthroughs promises lucrative spin-offs.

More frequent severe droughts, coral bleaching are on the agenda with more extreme El Nino events predicted even with ambitious climate goals.

More than 200 sheep have died after they hurtled over the edge of a cliff in the French Pyrenees.

Another bout of spring-like weather is in store for much of NSW including Sydney, possibly putting some July warmth records in play by the weekend.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she does not need to ban plastic bags in NSW, "because 80 per cent of plastic bags" will already be banned by the supermarkets themselves.

The BBC reports the arachnid was the "size of a guinea pig", causing one of the men to flee in fright.

Troops mobilised after heavy rains prompt floods on the South Island.