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Countries committed under the Paris Agreement to a broad goal of limiting global temperature rise to under 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), ideally 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear that half a degree of warming makes a huge difference, and 1.5 degrees C is the safer target.

Phasing out unprofitable coal plants could save U.S. consumers $10 billion a year by 2021 and boost the country's competitiveness, according to a new report by Carbon Tracker launched today. No Country for Coal Gen: Below 2°C and Regulatory Risk for U.S. Coal Power Owners is the first study to look at the economics of each U.S. coal power plant and provide investors with a tool to support a rational closure program to keep global warming below 2 C°.

C&A is the world's first retailer to offer jeans that are completely Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM at the Gold level. Designed in partnership with Fashion for Good, a global platform that aims to make all fashion good, the jeans were made with completely sustainable materials and were produced in compliance with the high Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM Gold level.

In June, C&A, the international Dutch chain of retail clothing stores, launched a line of T-shirts certified to the Cradle to Cradle standard, meaning that they were designed and manufactured in a way that is benign to the environment and human health, and whose materials can be recirculated safely back into industrial materials or composted into the soil.

Washington, D.C., is on track to obtain 40% of the electricity used by its city government from wind and solar sources. Part of the electricity will come from a wind farm in Pennsylvania. The city signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with the project in August. Mayor Muriel Bowser says the city will also source electricity from solar panels, with a plan to install panels at 34 government-owned sites. 

Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the world's crop land and yet it accounts for 24 percent and 11 percent of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides, respectively. Organic cotton represents less than 1 percent of the global total annual crop, but National Geographic, international clothing brand C&A, and activist and filmmaker Alexandra Cousteau believe that needs to change. A new 60-minute documentary, For the Love of Fashion, emphasizes "the need for a paradigm shift in the cotton value chain."

In this Yale Environment 360 video, we present the first of a two-part e360 series, "Wasted," on the vexing global problem of food waste. Filmmaker Karim Chrobog visits two cities - Washington, D.C., and Seoul, South Korea - to examine why so much food goes to waste and what can be done about it. Washington, and the U.S. as a whole, has taken only minor steps to reduce this enormous waste and its related human and environmental costs. By contrast, Seoul has adopted innovative programs to minimize the amount of food that ends up going to landfills to rot. 

Californians aren't doing enough to reduce their water use, despite being caught up in a years-long drought, writes the editorial board of The New York Times. "The state must focus on longer-term policies that encourage people to alter their lifestyles and businesses to change how they operate," the board writes

A group of organizations - including C&A Foundation, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, McDonough Innovation, and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition - have launched the Fashion For Good initiative, which aims to help set the apparel industry on a more sustainable path using a Cradle to Cradle-inspired, circular approach to product development. The initiative will engage key players from across the fashion industry and will support the "scale up of technologies, methodologies, and business models with the potential to wholly transform the industry."

The Mission 2020 campaign defines six milestones -in energy, transport, land use, industry, infrastructure and finance - that give governments and industries a clear roadmap to put us on a path towards achieving 1.5 degrees C. In a working paper published today, WRI found progress in some areas, but we'll need faster action in order to achieve the 2020 turning point.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched the Circular Fibres Initiative, a multi-stakeholder effort to build a circular economy for textiles. Nike and H&M have joined the initiative as corporate sponsors. The C&A Foundation, the Danish Fashion Institute, Fashion for Good, Cradle to Cradle, and Mistra Future Fashion will also participate in the initiative.

GREENSBORO, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As Wrangler® celebrates a milestone of three billion liters of water saved since 2007, the global leader in jeanswear and casual apparel announces a goal to reduce water usage at its facilities by 20 percent by the year 2020.

A new peer-reviewed study shows that widespread use of algae in animal feed could help limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C by 2100 and possibly even turn back the clock, bringing atmospheric carbon concentrations down to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Algae-based feeds have proven to be equal to or better than other feedstocks in nutritional value and digestibility, and could free large swaths of arable land and simultaneously address food security issues in an era of rising demand for animal proteins.

President Obama told representatives of 90 countries yesterday that taking steps to safeguard the world's oceans is crucial in a warming world. Speaking at the third annual Our Ocean conference, hosted this year by the State Department in Washington, D.C., Obama urged action to relieve stress on the world's oceans as they cope with climate change.

The BIOcultivator is just one of seven nature-inspired food system innovations participating in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge Accelerator, a program designed to help budding sustainable entrepreneurs bring their biomimicry design solutions from concept to the marketplace. Over the past year, these teams have been working to test and prototype their designs, and this month, at the National Bioneers Conference in CA, will be vying for the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) were on the road in 2015, including 400,000 in the United States. In order to limit global warming to 2°C or less, the agency says the world will need 150 million EVs by 2030 and 1 billion by 2050, implying a 21 percent compound annual growth rate from now until 2050.

Tech giants Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have submitted a joint brief to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court in support of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.

A draft report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the world will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 40% and 70% from 2010 levels by 2050 to limit global average temperature increases to 2° C above pre-industrial levels. The report summarizes the 3 major UN climate reports released over the past year.

Bed Bath & Beyond, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney and Backcountry.com have been accused of "bamboozling" shoppers by selling products purportedly made of eco-friendly bamboo, but that in fact were made of other, less sustainable materials. "False 'bamboo' claims are a significant problem for consumers who care about buying environmentally friendly products," said Federal Trade Commission attorney Korin Felix

The Science Based Targets initiative is celebrating a major milestone: over 100 companies have turned their commitments into targets and are now working towards emission reductions in line with what climate science says is necessary to limit warming to below 2°C.