Countries need to improve pledges on reducing emissions to reach the goal of keeping the increase in average global temperature below 2C by the end of the century, the International Energy Agency said Monday.

Setting out its assessment of various countries' commitments six months ahead of a crunch climate change conference in Paris, the IEA said: "These pledges will have a positive impact on future energy trends but will fall short of the major course correction required to meet the 2C goal."

From the simplest sketches to the most advanced scientific models, illustrations of mountains pretty much all look the same. Their classic pyramid form, wider at the bottom and narrowing all the way up to the top, has been ingrained in the human mind, and scientists have always assumed that land area in mountain ranges decreases the higher you climb. Until now, that is.

New research published Monday in Nature Climate Change reveals a surprising discovery that not only changes the way we think about mountains but could also have big implications for how we understand, monitor and protect the organisms that call them home.

The marathon effort to forge a world pact on climate change now hinges on what happens outside the U.N. arena in the coming months, analysts said after another faltering negotiation round.

Whether the 195-nation U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) can seal the much-vaunted post-2020 deal in Paris six months from now depends greatly on a flurry of meetings by movers and shakers.

The head of Unilever has called on world leaders to raise their game in the battle against climate change.

Chief executive Paul Polman said governments must set clear CO2 targets to force low-carbon innovation.

As the 2016 presidential election clanks into gear, it's a good time to assess the state of climate change politics in the United States.

In short: Things are not so good. Democrats are largely stuck in an ineffective holding pattern, implementing reasonable reforms with one hand and handing victories to oil companies with the other. Meanwhile, conservatives are still effectively denying the problem exists. Though the movement against climate change is making strides, there is a long ways to go yet.

Royal Dutch Shell has been accused of pursuing a strategy that would lead to potentially catastrophic climate change after an internal document acknowledged a global temperature rise of 4C, twice the level considered safe for the planet.

A paper used for guiding future business planning at the Anglo-Dutch multinational assumes that carbon dioxide emissions will fail to limit temperature increases to 2C, the internationally agreed threshold to prevent widespread flooding, famine and desertification.

Customers generally visit the Marriott hotel near Regent’s Park in London, for a good night’s sleep, not to help fight climate change.

But a radical program of energy demand reduction is underway to help them do both.

In another ominous sign of human-caused climate change, U.S. government scientists said lately that global carbon dioxide concentrations have reached a new monthly record of 400 parts per million.

Carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas, and is a harmful by-product of burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

Despite growing concerns over climate change and energy security, the scale of subsidies given to fossil fuels is increasing globally.

Global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to USD 523 billion in 2011, increasing by 20% from 2010 (International Energy Agency, 2013). When compared to subsidies given to the renewable energy sector, these amounted to USD 88 billion in 2011 (IEA, 2013).

In 2013, the composition A Song of Our Warming Planet transformed 133 years of global temperature measurements into a haunting melody for the cello. Following its release, A Song of Our Warming Planet was featured by The New York Times, Slate, the Weather Channel, National Public Radio, io9, The Huffington Post and many others on its way to becoming a viral sensation and reaching audiences around the globe.

Now the co-creators, University of Minnesota undergraduate Daniel Crawford and geography professor Scott St. George, are back with a new composition that uses music to highlight the places where climate is changing most rapidly.