"Pope Francis makes an urgent call for protection of the planet and repeats his view that global warming is mostly man-made in his keenly awaited encyclical, according to a draft published by an Italian magazine on Monday."

"VATICAN CITY — Ban Ki-moon arrived at the Vatican with his own college of cardinals. Mr. Ban, the United Nations secretary general, had brought the leaders of all his major agencies to see Pope Francis, a show of organizational muscle and respect for a meeting between two global institutions that had sometimes shared a bumpy past but now had a mutual interest." A roundup of stories about the papal encyclical to be released Thursday.

"In a major report to be released Monday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency — which provides independent energy analysis and has 29 member countries, including the United States — will state that current national commitments to cut greenhouse gases are still insufficient to keep the world below two degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels."

"Global warming has returned to Washington. An issue that Congress largely ignored since the death of climate and energy legislation five years ago has come back in a most unlikely place: the trade debate."

"For the first time in nearly 40 years, state regulators are telling more than 100 growers and irrigation districts with some of the oldest water rights in California that they have to stop drawing supplies from drought-starved rivers and streams in the Central Valley."

"Climate change is a burning issue for the United States and particularly the American West, according to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, whose department has to fight increasingly intense forest and range fires."

"Washington’s notorious snowball-thrower was at it again – even on a June day with forecast highs of 92 degrees – as the Senate’s most powerful environmental leader delivered a pep talk to activists who deny the science behind climate change."

"Willie Soon from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics probed over failure to disclose more than $1.2m from energy industry when submitting articles".

"As New England winters get warmer and shorter, ticks are driving a worrisome decline in a species that's crucial to the region's economy."

"If House Republicans get their way, President Obama won't be able to use any trade pact to strike a deal on climate change."