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Pope Francis will release a major encyclical this week calling for the world's Catholics to take a stand against climate change and environmental degradation. The letter, the first such statement by a pope, will frame environmental activism as a social justice issue. "Pope Francis is personally committed to this issue like no other pope before him. The encyclical will have a major impact," U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said. 

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

Hoping to stem illegal wildlife trafficking, the Obama administration on Wednesday introduced an aggressive plan for taking on traffickers that will include using American intelligence agencies to track and target those who benefit from the estimated $20-billion-a-year market.

This year's World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report lists water as the number one risk in terms of impact. The impact of water can already be seen and felt across different parts of society, especially recent droughts in the western United States and Brazil, which have made international headlines, and are evidence of an underlying problem.

A coalition of companies with skin in the game - food and beverage giants General Mills, Driscoll's and Coca-Cola North America, Gap Inc., Symantec and home builder KB Home - are coming together to launch a new campaign urging companies to enact more aggressive measures to maximize California's local and state water resources.

Owens Corning announced plans to reduce its GHG emissions by 50% and toxic air emissions by 75% against a 2010 baseline by 2020. The company also claims to have executed the largest set of wind power agreements reported by an industrial company in the world.

The Paris climate accord heralds a new era for the global economy, with a wide range of investors and industries now likely to seek ways to avoid carbon risks and adopt less carbon-intensive ways of doing business, experts say. Secretary of State John Kerry says the deal will be a net job creator and sends a powerful message to the marketplace. Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners, agrees. "It's very hard to go backward from something like this. People are boarding this train, and it's time to hop on if you want to have a thriving, 21st-century economy," she says. 

Adidas collaborated with Stella McCartney to launch an apparel and footwear line that aims to promote the importance of environmentally friendly fashion. The apparel and footwear line incorporates fabrics such as recycled polyester, organic cotton, and recycled ocean plastic.

The Nigerian Government has spoken of its plans to seriously scale-up its green finance initiatives over the coming year.

A group of companies - including General Mills, The Hershey Company, and Nestlé - have committed to working with the governments of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana to end cocoa-related deforestation, protect national parks from illegal cocoa production, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers. The initiative is led by IDH - the Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Prince of Wales's International Sustainability Unit, and the World Cocoa Foundation, in partnership with the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.