Climate change and reducing carbon emissions on the table in Paris

A couple wear protective masks as they walk outside the Forbidden City on a day of heavy pollution in Beijing, China. China’s capital and many cities in the northern part of the country recorded the worst smog of the year with air quality devices in some areas unable to read such high levels of pollutants.

Pagodas are shrouded on a polluted day in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia region. Northern China choked under some of the worst smog this year on November 30, with Beijing’s pollution soaring to 22 times healthy limits, triggering the city’s second-highest air alert on the eve of global climate change talks.

An Indonesian woman and a child walk on a bamboo bridge as thick yellow haze shrouds the city in Palangkaraya. Dense haze from Indonesian forest fires has caused some of the worst pollution in southern Thailand for a decade.

A resident fishes by the river in Palangkaraya city, one of worst-hit by haze in central Kalimantan province.

An Indonesian scavenger collects recyclable materials at a dumpsite in Marelan, Indonesia. T