In the first part of the talk, the confining properties of the weakly-coupled (2+1)D Georgi-Glashow model, as well as of its SU(N)-generalization, will be discussed by means of their string
representations. The SU(N)-generalization of the so-called theory of
confining strings will be presented. In the second part of the talk, the finite-temperature properties of these theories will be discussed both on the qualitative level and in the language of the RG equations. When massless quarks are included, their influence to the phase structure of the Georgi-Glashow model will also be analysed. Both at T=0 and T>0, a special attention will be paid to various novel effects appearing due to the finiteness of the Higgs-boson mass (which makes the Georgi-Glashow model different from compact QED).