There is widespread coverage of the latest failure of talks to agree the world's first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

GRID PRESSURES: Iraq suffered a “near nationwide blackout” as elevated power demand – due to extreme temperatures of around 50C – triggered a transmission line failure, Bloomberg reported.

Four common talking points surrounding China’s ongoing coal-power expansion and how and why the current wave of new projects might end.

Carbon Brief handpicks and explains the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.

Climate change drove record levels of humidity around the world last year, according to the latest “state of the climate” report from the American Meteorological Society ...

Deadly rainfall and flooding struck across China and the government issued policies on clean-energy “price wars”.

Wildfires “fanned by a heatwave and strong winds wreaked destruction across southern Europe”, burning homes and forcing evacuations, reports Reuters.

Extreme heat fanning deadly wildfires in Europe has killed at least three people and caused thousands more to evacuate, the Guardian reports.

An uptick in heat extremes has caused tropical bird populations to decline by up to 38% since the 1950s, according to new analysis.

Nations are meeting at a UN conference in Geneva, in a bid to develop a legally binding global treaty to curb plastic pollution, BBC News reports.