The German government unveiled a new package of climate measures Wednesday to close the emissions gap in the transport and housing sectors as part of the country's plan to become carbon neutral by 2045.

Transport Minister Volker Wissing said his department planned to boost the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, expand public transport and build more bicycle lanes in the hopes that people will leave their gasoline-powered cars at home.

A spate of wildfires is scorching Western Europe, with firefighters battling blazes in Portugal, Spain and southern France on Wednesday amid an unusual heat wave that authorities are linking to climate change.

In Portugal, Civil Protection commander André Fernandes said that multiple fires have caused the evacuation of more than 600 people. About 120 people needed medical treatment, with two people — one civilian and one firefighter — suffering serious injuries, Fernandes said.

Several areas of Spain were put on high alert Wednesday as temperatures were set to rise again with parts of western Europe suffering under a second heatwave in a matter of weeks.

Temperatures were set to reach 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) in some parts of Spain, which has been sweltering since the heatwave started at the weekend. It is expected to last until Sunday. 

Firefighters in Portugal on Monday contained two forest fires that ravaged the center of the country which is under a state of emergency due to an ongoing heatwave. 

A police officer in eastern DR Congo has been detained for alleged poaching after locals heard the screams of a baby monkey coming from his bag, officials said Monday.

Heavy rainfall has flooded several villages in Yakutia, in Russia's Far East region, authorities said on Tuesday.

Firefighters battled wildfires in Spain and Portugal Tuesday as Western Europe faced its second heatwave in less than a month which threatened glaciers in the Alps and worsened drought conditions.

Countries have approved the first comprehensive guidelines for judging the value of nature following four years of intense debate, officials said Monday.

The report was endorsed by 139 countries that are members of the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPBES.

Civil Defense firefighters backed by the Lebanese Army battled Monday a large fire that had ripped through the forests of Roumieh, a village north-east of Beirut surrounded by pine-forested hills.

The Army sent water-dropping helicopters to help the Civil Defense extinguish the fire, as the wind speed, the rugged area where the fire erupted and difficulty to secure water for the fire engines complicated efforts to contain the blaze.

Every day billions of people depend on wild flora and fauna to obtain food, medicine and energy. But a new United Nations-backed report says that overexploitation, climate change, pollution and deforestation are pushing one million species towards extinction.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - or IPBES - report has said that unless humankind improves the sustainable use of nature, the Earth is on its way to losing 12% of its wild tree species, over a thousand wild mammal species and almost 450 species of sharks and rays, among other irreparable harm.