French President Francois Hollande said Monday that Chinese support was "essential" to reaching an effective deal at the forthcoming climate change conference in Paris, as he began a visit to the Asian giant.

In the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, Hollande said he was seeking "a global and ambitious agreement that will allow [global] warming to be limited to two degrees".

Hollywood star Sean Penn said Sunday the upcoming climate talks in Paris were the "last great chance" to stop the planet overheating.

Penn, one of Hollywood's most socially engaged actors and directors, was in the French capital to meet Environment Minister Segolene Royal with less than a month to go until the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference begins.

The sign -- "risk of drowning" -- outside one of Rio de Janeiro's freshwater reservoirs looks like a joke: there's no water here left to drown in.

Instead, the Saracuruna reservoir near Duque de Caxias, outside Rio, is an expanse of sand, mud and vegetation. Four stray dogs scamper and cattle come to drink from a stream still running through the middle.

Access to fishing was the main stumbling block to agreement on two vast marine reserves in Antarctica, the head of the Australian delegation to international talks said Saturday.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) wrapped up talks Friday without securing the required consensus on the marine protected areas (MPAs) designed to conserve the pristine wilderness which is home to penguins, seals and whales.

Four California cities, including upscale Beverly Hills, got slapped with fines on Friday for failing to cut back on water use as the west coast U.S. state struggles with a historic drought.

The wealthy district's water utility was fined $61,000 dollars along with the desert cities of Indio, Redlands and Coachella.

Carbon-cutting pledges from 146 nations for a universal climate rescue pact leave the "door open" to capping global warming below the danger threshold, the United Nations said Friday, a month ahead of crunch talks in Paris.

But even if these 10-to-15 year plans are fulfilled, humanity will have used up three-quarters of its carbon "budget" by 2030 and must slash greenhouse gas output even more to avoid devastating climate impacts, the UN's Climate Change Secretariat warned.

The food chains of the world’s oceans are at risk of collapse due to the release of greenhouse gases, overfishing and localized pollution, a stark new analysis shows.

A study of 632 published experiments of the world’s oceans, from tropical to arctic waters, spanning coral reefs and the open seas, found that climate change is whittling away the diversity and abundance of marine species.

Google has made a reputation for itself in recent years as a major investor in renewable energy. And this morning, the company announced its newest investment: a wind power project in Kenya that, when completed, will be the continent’s biggest wind farm.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, which broke ground in July, is expected to generate 1,400 gigawatt-hours of power per year, or 15 percent of the country’s electricity consumption, according to a fact sheet from Vestas, one of the project’s co-developers. The project will include 365 wind turbines, spread along the shore of Kenya’s Lake Turkana.

Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have plunged to the lowest level ever recorded after the EU’s member states reported an estimated 23% drop in emissions between 1990 and 2014.

The bloc has now overshot its target for 2020 of cutting emissions by one-fifth – at the same time that its economy grew by 46%, according to the EU’s climate chief, Miguel Arias Canete .

Governments working on the proposed new global deal on climate change, to be agreed this December, must step up their efforts after a slow week of talks produced little progress, observers have said.

In December, governments will meet in Paris to decide a new global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, which would kick in from 2020 when current international commitments on emissions expire.