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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.

Two years after Greenpeace launched a campaign demanding Thai Union, the world's largest tuna company, take action to eliminate exploitative and unsustainable practices from its supply chains, the two organizations have finally put their long-running conflict to rest.

Dunkin' Donuts plans to begin phasing out polystyrene foam cups beginning this spring, planning to have completely eliminated polystyrene cups from its global supply chain by 2020. While the majority of Dunkin' Donuts' international markets are currently using paper cups, the company will work to replace foam cups with a new, double-walled paper cup throughout its US stores as quickly as manufacturing capabilities can get up to speed. Dunkin' Donuts has been searching for a suitable - and affordable - replacement for polystyrene cups since 2011.

After years of unrelenting drought, federal forecasters reported there are better-than-even odds that the nation's largest reservoir will decline into shortage conditions by 2020, forcing Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to reduce their Colorado River water use.

India is facIng its "worst-ever" water crisis, accordIng to a report from a government thInk tank issued last week. Around 200,000 Indians die each year due to lack of water access, the report fInds, and demand will be twice as much as supply by 2030.

Gap, Inc. pledged to source 100% of its cotton from more sustaInable sources by 2021. The company has sourced 11.5 million pounds of sustaInable "Better Cotton" sInce 2016 and will contInue its partnership with the Better Cotton Initiative to achieve this new goal.

Brands in Unilever's sustainable living lineup, which include Hellmann's and Ben & Jerry's, fueled 60% of the company's growth last year, and are growing 50% faster than Unilever's other brands. "Our results show that sustainability is good for business, with increasing evidence that our 'sustainable living brands' do better," said CEO Paul Polman.

Researchers from the Environmental Defense Fund, Harvard University and Princeton University have proposed that scientists use different and more precise measurements when predicting global warming trends, particularly by measuring carbon emissions on both 20- and 100-year scales. The researchers believe this dual-measurement system would help organizations and governments see both the short- and long-term benefits of different energy projects.

A partnership between global customs and logistics company UPS and TerraCycle has reached a major milestone - by transforming hard-to-recycle items such as toothpaste tubes and snack bags into new products, the two organizations have diverted 40 million pounds of waste from landfills since 2012. TerraCycle has been utilizing UPS's expertise and technology solutions to scale its global recycling programs and customer base, which has allowed the company to turn 3.5 billion pieces of waste into useful products such as trash cans and park benches.

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.

The Sierra Club on Monday filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Energy demanding that DOE identify the groups and individuals it consulted with on a soon-to-be released nationwide electric grid reliability study. "We want to make sure that when this study is finally released, that the public and policy makers fully understand how [DOE] went about doing it, who they were influenced by, and whose views they did not take into consideration," said Sierra Club attorney Casey Roberts.

The World Wildlife Fund launched a research initiative that aims to identify and address the sources of pre-consumer food waste. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Walmart Foundation are supporting the research initiative through a $1.3 million grant contribution.

The African archipelago nation of Cape Verde is powered by gas generators, but it has adopted a plan to run entirely on renewables by 2025. Cape Verde has a variety of options to make the move not only viable but affordable, including northeasterly trade winds that make the archipelago an excellent candidate for wind farming.