Rebecca Herscher

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

In recent years, wind and solar power has expanded dramatically.

It's now the cheapest source of electricity in most of the world, and that's helping to slow the rate of global warming.

But it's not enough to avoid catastrophic amounts of warming in the coming decades, says United Nations Climate Chief Simon Steele.

Delegates from more than 190 nations are participating in this year's meeting.

The United States is not among them.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

Large parts of Jamaica and Cuba are still in ruins a week after Hurricane Melissa swept through.

Dozens of people were killed across the Caribbean.

A new analysis by the climate risk modeling firm, Karen Clark & Company, finds the storm caused an estimated $2.4 billion of insured damage.

That includes damage to homes, businesses, and industrial sites in Jamaica and Cuba.

It's packing a lot of storm surge and rain.

And honestly, those water hazards are at least as scary as the wind, if not more so.

Here's what we know.

We're expecting 10 feet of storm surge or more in some parts of Jamaica.

And the storm is moving really, really slowly, like it's crawling over the water of the Caribbean.

And it's not going to speed up as it hits land.

So it will linger over Jamaica, dumping huge amounts of rain.

And I just, I can't overstate how much rain we're talking about here.

Melissa is expected to bring multiple feet of rain to some parts of Jamaica.