International

"The Biden administration is planning to host world leaders in a climate summit on Earth Day according to three people familiar with the matter, a sign of the new president’s commitment to not just rejoin the Paris carbon-cutting accord but also strengthen it.

The U.S.-hosted meeting on April 22 could be virtual, one of the people said, similar to a United Nation’s climate summit in December. That event featured six hours of remarks from world leaders, but they only offered incremental steps to combating climate change.

"Electric vehicles are close to the “tipping point” of rapid mass adoption thanks to the plummeting cost of batteries, experts say."

"A decade after an outbreak of Q fever killed 95 people in the Netherlands, scientists fear the emergence of a new disease",

"A layer of warming water is rising from the subsurface, threatening to speed up Antarctic ice melt".

"The world is lagging behind the pace of change needed to avert catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis, John Kerry has warned in his first remarks as the US’s new climate envoy."

"China's coal output rose last year to its highest since 2015, despite Beijing's climate change pledge to reduce consumption of the dirty fossil fuel and months of disruption at major coal mining hubs."

"A cave complex at a temple in Thailand has long drawn tourists, pilgrims and guano collectors. Now, scientists have arrived, looking for any potential links to the coronavirus."

"A wheelbarrow and a handful of metal grids for capturing litter, emblazoned with the words “Renew Oceans,” sit rusting outside an empty, padlocked office in the Indian city of Varanasi, a short walk from the Ganges."