International: All stories
Wildfires take toll on Pacific islands
16 Aug 2021
A metal roof sits atop the burned remains of a homestead on the once-lush slopes of Hawaii's Mauna Kea—a dormant volcano and the state's tallest peak—charred cars and motorcycles strewn about as wind-whipped sand and ash blast the scorched landscape.
China's carbon market records its first cross-border deal
16 Aug 2021
Even as trading on China's national carbon market dwindled away in its first month to next to nothing, one sign of life emerged this week in the form of an unusual cross-border deal for a voluntary form of carbon emission credits.
“Blue” hydrogen is worse for the climate than coal
16 Aug 2021
Gas companies and utilities are in a pickle. Their entire business model relies on the extraction, transport, and combustion of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases known to humankind. With many countries aiming to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, these companies face an uncertain future.
French cuisine goes off grid
16 Aug 2021
As other businesses go green, food service remains an energy-intensive outlier. Europe’s first solar-powered restaurant wants to change the recipe.
Sicily may have recorded highest ever European temp - 48.8C
13 Aug 2021
UN weather experts said on Thursday that they’re “actively looking” into a possible record temperature for Continental Europe of 48.8 Celsius near the town of Syracuse in Sicily, amid devastating wildfires in Mediterranean countries and Russia.
Three things we must do now to stabilise the planet
13 Aug 2021
David King and Jane Lichtenstein of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Repair outline the three urgent actions that need to be taken to stabilise the planet in this piece from The Conversation.
The IPCC understated need for methane emission cuts: experts
13 Aug 2021
The IPCC missed a key opportunity to underscore the urgent need for rapid reductions in emissions of methane and other short-lived climate pollutants in the roll out of a seminal report on the science of climate change on Monday, climate experts say.
Carbon budget will exhaust in 10 years at current emission levels: IPCC report
12 Aug 2021
The first installment of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has provided an updated estimate of the carbon budget — the maximum amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be emitted while still having a chance to limit warming to 1.5°C or 2°C.
How to sell 'carbon neutral' fossil fuel that doesn't exist
12 Aug 2021
The junior traders at TotalEnergies SE were essentially winging it last September by orchestrating the French energy giant’s first shipment of “carbon-neutral” natural gas. It’s the greenest-possible designation for fossil fuel and an important step in making the company’s core product more palatable in a warming world. Nailing down the deal involved googling and guesswork.
Environmental policies could see Bolsanaro in front of International Criminal Court
12 Aug 2021
For the third time in two years, Indigenous groups in Brazil are accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of committing international crimes, for his actions against Native peoples and his environmental policies.
Indonesia urged to ban new oil palm plantations forever
12 Aug 2021
Indonesia should make permanent its temporary ban on new permits for oil palm plantations to advance progress on tackling deforestation and meet its climate goals, environmentalists say.
UN experts call for more nuclear power stations
12 Aug 2021
The urgent need to reduce emissions and slow global heating, should involve the roll-out of more nuclear power stations, regional UN energy experts argued in a new briefing on Wednesday.
The IPCC environmental warning India cannot ignore
11 Aug 2021
If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was just about rushing countries to cut their carbon emissions to avoid a climate catastrophe, India could perhaps afford to look the other way.
Rich world should pay poor countries' carbon debts
11 Aug 2021
Rich countries should ditch privileged debates over the legacy of colonialism and pay off poorer countries’ carbon instead, an influential investor has told The Independent.
The far-right view on climate politics
11 Aug 2021
As the world reckons with the grim reality of the climate crisis, right-wing populists are adapting their message.
IPCC report a "call to arms" say architects and designers
11 Aug 2021
The latest IPCC climate report offers a "nugget of hope" but architects and designers must "make changes to the way they design" to help avert catastrophic climate change, according to Architects Climate Action Network.
We are a warming world
11 Aug 2021
Coldplay, Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran are among the stars announced Tuesday for a day of concerts across multiple cities on September 25 to raise awareness about climate change, poverty and vaccine distribution.
Mother of all climate science reports
10 Aug 2021
It’s here, it’s intensifying, and if the world doesn’t act now, we’re fucked. That in a nutshell is the message of the most comprehensive scientific report on climate change in years.
Pacific Island nations could be lost within the century
10 Aug 2021
Global heating above 1.5C will be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea level rise within the century, experts have warned.
No part of the planet will be spared
10 Aug 2021
The IPCC report shows that recent extreme weather events are only a mild preview of the decades ahead.
Worst polluting countries must make drastic carbon cuts: Cop26 chief
10 Aug 2021
The world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases must produce clear plans to cut their carbon output drastically, the president of vital UN climate talks has urged, after scientists warned there was only a small chance of escaping the worst ravages of climate breakdown.
IPCC interactive atlas provides a glimpse into possible futures
10 Aug 2021
An IPCC interactive atlas lets you see what kind of climate impacts—like floods, drought, or heat—will happen in your region, depending on how fast we cut greenhouse gas emissions.
'Final warning': US lawmakers
10 Aug 2021
Lawmakers and top climate officials in President Joe Biden's administration sounded the alarm on Monday in response to a new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, urging nations to swiftly limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
An insider's view on why tonight's IPCC report is a big deal
9 Aug 2021
An extremely important report on the physical science of climate change will be released to the world tonight (8pm NZ time). CSIRO chief research scientist David Karoly explains why it's such a big deal.
Time running out to stop catastrophe - Alok Sharma
9 Aug 2021
The world is "dangerously close" to running out of time to stop a climate change catastrophe, the UK government's climate chief Alok Sharma has said.
Global warming could lead to some countries freezing
9 Aug 2021
A large system of ocean currents in the Atlantic – which includes the Gulf Stream – has been disrupted due to human-caused climate change, scientists reported in a new study published last week. If that system collapses, it would lead to dramatic changes in worldwide weather patterns.
How can artificial intelligence help fight climate change?
9 Aug 2021
Algorithmic machine learning systems are being lauded as an 'integral' part of the new clean energy economy, but critics see them as an energy-intensive distraction.
COP26: Warnings that climate summit may not happen
6 Aug 2021
Boris Johnson says there'll be no downgrading of ambitions ahead of this year's COP26 climate conference. But with less than 90 days to go - and uncertainty still surrounding the event due to Covid - there are questions over whether it will fly or flop.
U.N. climate report likely to deliver stark warnings on global warming
6 Aug 2021
Eight years after its last update on climate science, the United Nations is set to publish a report Monday that will likely deliver even starker warnings about how quickly the planet is warming – and how damaging the impacts might get.
Facebook let fossil-fuel industry push climate misinformation
6 Aug 2021
Facebook failed to enforce its own rules to curb an oil and gas industry misinformation campaign over the climate crisis during last year’s presidential election, according to a new analysis released yesterday.
Half US cars to be zero-emission by 2030 - Biden
6 Aug 2021
President Biden wants half of cars sold in the US by 2030 to be zero-emission vehicles, the White House says.
South Korea sets 3 options for carbon reduction
6 Aug 2021
The Korean Presidential Committee on Carbon Neutrality yesterday unveiled three options for reducing carbon emissions by 2050, but only one of them achieves carbon neutrality.
Costa Rica eyes ban on fossil fuel exploration
5 Aug 2021
Costa Rican lawmakers this week will discuss a bill to permanently ban fossil fuel exploration and extraction, a move that would prevent future governments from pivoting on the issue as the popular eco-tourism destination country aims to decarbonize by 2050.
US forest fires threaten carbon offsets
5 Aug 2021
Forests in the United States that generate the carbon offsets bought by companies including BP and Microsoft are on fire as summer blazes rage in North America.
Carbon accounting's dirty secret
5 Aug 2021
There’s a dirty secret of carbon accounting, and it could soon be exposed. That’s because the assumptions most companies base their calculations on could be wrong.
The ‘queen of vegan cheese’ wants to change the dairy industry
5 Aug 2021
Miyoko Schinner has been on a years-long quest to make tasty vegan cheese. Now she wants to help dairy farmers switch to plant-based farming.
Emperor penguins faced with extinction
4 Aug 2021
IF current global warming trends continue, Antarctica’s sea ice will decline at a rate that will reduce emperor penguin numbers to the point that almost all colonies will become quasi-extinct by 2100, writes scientist Stephanie Jenouvrier in the Conversation.
Priest sews his mouth shut over 'muting of climate science
4 Aug 2021
A priest has sewn his lips together to protest against the “suppression” of climate science in Rupert Murdoch's media outlets.
UN climate panel models show 'implausibly fast' warming
4 Aug 2021
Next week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will unveil its latest scientific assessment, widely considered the most authoritative review of climate research.
Surplus renewable energy powers Orkney's hydrogen economy
4 Aug 2021
Perched atop the United Kingdom, ten miles north of mainland Scotland, the Orkney Islands are a wild place. Encircled by roiling waters — the North Sea on one side, the Atlantic Ocean on the other — and battered by winds year round, the weather-lashed archipelago is bracing, beautiful and has in abundance that which others are scrambling to produce: renewable power.
Israel announces carbon tax
4 Aug 2021
Israel has announced it will introduce a carbon tax from 2023, with the tax initially applying to just coal, liquified petroleum gas, fuel oil, petcoke and gas.
Best way to tax carbon at the border
3 Aug 2021
As more world leaders consider levying border taxes on climate-damaging goods, a new study looks at ways it can be done in countries—including the United States—that haven’t established a domestic market for carbon emissions.
The rise of greenflation
3 Aug 2021
The world faces a growing paradox in the campaign to contain climate change. The harder it pushes the transition to a greener economy, the more expensive the campaign becomes, and the less likely it is to achieve the aim of limiting the worst effects of global warming.
‘No eureka moment’: the evolution of climate science
3 Aug 2021
What if Earth's atmosphere was infused with extra carbon dioxide, mused amateur scientist Eunice Foote in an 1856 research paper that concluded the gas was very good at absorbing heat.
Promising battery technology revealed
3 Aug 2021
Startup Form Energy has finally made public the battery chemistry behind a technology that the company claims could make challenges of integrating renewable energy a thing of the past and outcompete fossil fuels.
More countries hike climate pledges
2 Aug 2021
A group of mostly smaller countries submitted new, more ambitious climate pledges to the United Nations this week, raising pressure on big emitters including China to do the same ahead of a major U.N. climate summit in November.
China and India miss UN deadline to update targets
2 Aug 2021
China and India, among the world's worst offenders for emissions, have failed to submit updated target proposals to curb the release of carbon dioxide.
Surge in Arctic temperatures melting Greenland's ice
2 Aug 2021
Greenland is experiencing its most significant melting event of the year as temperatures in the Arctic surge. The amount of ice that melted on Tuesday alone would be enough to cover the entire state of Florida in two inches of water.
"Carbon washing is the new greenwashing"
2 Aug 2021
The global push to reduce atmospheric carbon is being compromised by confusing terminology and misleading claims, argues Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.
Reducing emissions could save tens of millions of lives
30 Jul 2021
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly would save tens of millions of lives worldwide, a new study finds
Companies could have profits from breaking environment laws stripped under Australian reforms
Thu 23 Oct 2025
The Albanese government wants the power to strip companies of any financial gains made from breaking environment laws, as part of a package of landmark reforms to be put before parliament in the next two weeks.
How veterans of Al Gore's firm plan to align on climate and still profit
Thu 23 Oct 2025
A new investment firm is betting on a big idea: There's no collision between prioritising both climate and returns despite the recent vibe shift – if you do the homework.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
The methane hunters of Melendugno
Thu 23 Oct 2025
How Italian activists are fighting to expose the true scale of the climate harm caused by a giant European pipeline.
UK Prime Minister will attend Brazil climate summit
Tue 21 Oct 2025
Keir Starmer will travel to the Amazon rainforest for the COP30 United Nations climate summit next month, Downing Street has confirmed, after weeks of speculation that he would not.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Mystery heatwave warms Pacific Ocean to new record
Tue 21 Oct 2025
The waters of the north Pacific have had their warmest summer on record, according to BBC analysis of a mysterious marine heatwave that has confounded climate scientists.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Brazil's Indigenous battle with a dry Amazon rainforest
Thu 23 Oct 2025
As pastures and thirsty crops dry up the Amazon, Indigenous people try to adapt traditional farming methods.
Just 28% of countries have released nature pledges a year after UN deadline
Thu 23 Oct 2025
Only 28% of countries have met a UN call to submit new plans on addressing nature loss – a year after the original deadline.
