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France's government has unveiled a law to ban all production and exploration of oil and natural gas by 2040 on the country's mainland and overseas territories. The move is largely symbolic, however, as France's oil and gas production represents just 1 percent of national consumption - the rest is imported. The ban, which the government claims is a world first, is part of a larger plan to wean the country's economy from fossil fuels, encourage clean energy and fulfill France's commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement to curb global warming.

Kellogg's has joined RE100 and adopted a goal to source 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2050, according to the firm. "We hope to inspire others in our sector to follow our lead and do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions," said Chief Sustainability Officer Diane Holdorf.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top official at the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday the ongoing legal fight over regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants won't delay the nation's accelerating shift to cleaner sources of energy. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy spoke at Climate Action 2016, a conference in Washington on efforts to curb global warming. Seeking to reassure her international audience, McCarthy said the United States will absolutely meet its obligations to cut carbon emissions as agreed to in the landmark climate treaty signed in Paris last December.

A glass of wine can require as much as 14 gallons of water to make, prompting Fetzer Vineyards to try a wriggly wastewater solution invented in Chile.

The problem of ocean waste, particularly the plastic variety, is a big one, and many creative people are working on ways to clean it up. Finding ways to repurpose the plastic debris collected from the ocean is one component of that, and the U.S.-based startup ByFusion has responded with technology that recycles ocean plastic into durable construction blocks. This way, the plastic waste can be repurposed permanently, rather than being used to create another disposable plastic item that might wind up right back in our precious waterways.

Technology that compresses plastic waste items turns them into blocks suitable for construction, providing a permanent way to remove discarded plastic from the environment. The RePlast system developed by New Zealand-based inventor Peter Lewis is said to be nearly 100% carbon neutral and doesn't require the plastic to be sorted or washed.

India's Central Electricity Authority released its latest draft National Electricity Plan, which lays out intentions to more than double India's clean energy capacity by 2027, according to Climate Home. The plan also indicates that the country will not build additional coal-fired energy capacity from 2022 to 2027.

If you don't like lifeless hair, dandruff on your shoulders and plastics in your ocean, you can tackle all three in the shower. Procter & Gamble announced Thursday that its Head & Shoulders shampoo bottles will be recyclable and made of up to 25 percent "beach plastics," from trash removed from beaches, oceans, rivers and other waterways.

H&M, one of the most eco-conscious fashion stores out there, has been battling against just that since 2013, and is hoping to enlist the help if its customers with a powerful new video. Entitled Bring it on, a short film shows what happens to the garments you recycle, from being turned into new fabrics for new clothes to being used as cleaning clothes. In doing this, it hopes to collect 25,000 tonnes of unwanted clothes per year by 2020. 

H&M's "Bring It On" campaign encourages customers to recycle unwanted clothing at local stores, with Londoners getting a gift voucher worth about $6.25 in exchange. The company aims to collect more than 27,500 tons of used clothing and donate the funds from the garments toward textile recycling and human rights organizations.

Europe is on track to reduce its carbon emissions by 44% by 2050 -- well below the 80% to 95% reduction that experts say is needed to avert catastrophic climate change. That shows the need for long-term planning and more ambitious targets, campaigners say. "This trend shows the nonsense of pursuing only a business-as-usual scenario and underlines the need for coherent long-term policy development," says Adrian Joyce of EuroACE

Necker Island, a small Caribbean island owned by business icon Richard Branson, has signed a contract to slash its diesel fuel use by building a renewable energy-powered microgrid.

Southern Co.'s coal plants are among the biggest carbon emitters in the U.S., but the company is about to build a new carbon-capture plant that could play a vital role in slowing climate change. The Mississippi plant, along with another in Canada, will capture carbon emissions and pump them into depleted oil reservoirs

Brands including Target, Levi's and Gap are teaming up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to make their suppliers' factories in China more sustainable. A pilot project involving 33 factories has already seen coal consumption reduced by 61,000 tons and chemical consumption by 400 tons, and saved the factories a total of $14.7 million.

If the EPA lowers ground-level ozone - a decision it is likely to make this month - some businesses, cities and regions will be affected more than others, HPAC Engineering reports.

Ben & Jerry's, eBay, Gap, Levi Strauss & Co., and The North Face are among 24 companies that announced support of SB-350-a California bill to set benchmarks for increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency, while decreasing petroleum use by 2030.

Ford will invest $750,000 to install wind sail and solar panel systems at 4 Ford dealerships, in partnership with the Wind Energy Corporation. The 20,000 kW-h of electricity generated annually will

Commercial wind and solar developers looking to sign up for New Mexico's Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (REPTC) in the near future will have to take a number and get in line. The program has been so popular that production tax credits for solar are maxed out through 2022. All of the available credits for wind are claimed from 2016-2020.

A soy moratorium imposed by a private sector alliance has been more effective at stopping deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon than government regulation