The Obama administration is "powerfully and fervently " engaged in UN talks to forge a global climate treaty but cannot rescue the troubled process on its own.
Argentina's beef industry and wheat and corn production have been devastated by the country's most severe drought since 1961- a drought which has also affected agriculture in neighbouring Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
With temperatures plummeting to as low as -25°C in eastern Europe, as many as 13 people have died in countries including Poland, Romania and Germany. Over in England, heating problems forced school closures.
Despite an unusually cool 2008, the overall ice volume around the Arctic region continued its steady downward trend this year, the UN weather agency WMO warned in a report on the impact of climate extremes.
Regional representatives from around the world have gathered in the city of Saint-Malo, in the Atlantic region of France, to take a stand against climate change. These regions want to prove that they too can play a leading role in the battle.
At a nationally televised news conference, Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde (photo) said the government had asked the IMF for $2 billion in aid "to restore faith in the Icelandic economy and stabilise the currency."
On the last day of talks at the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, leaders from more than 40 member nations turn their sights from the financial crisis to energy security and climate change.
The seventh Asia-Europe summit (ASEM) opened in Beijing on Friday, with the international financial crisis taking center stage over the original themes of sustainable development and climate change.
European leaders have insisted environmental targets be maintained despite objections from some countries that the financial crisis makes them less attainable.
EU leaders have agreed to take into account "national concerns" over an ambitious plan to tackle climate change after Poland and Italy threatened to scupper the project because of the costs to their economies.
