International: All stories
IMF and World Bank will push G20 over climate
1 Mar 2021
The leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are vowing to step up efforts to combat climate change by looking more closely at climate-related financial stability risk and using other tools at their disposal.
Climate pledges a long way from 1.5deg, UN warns
1 Mar 2021
Updated plans to reduce emissions barely make a dent in the huge cuts needed to meet global climate goals and the United Nations is calling for redoubled efforts.
Why corporate climate polluters must pay
26 Feb 2021
Who should pay the huge costs of climate change’s damage? There’s a case for corporate climate polluters to contribute.
Carbon tax would be popular with UK voters, poll suggests
25 Feb 2021
Taxing carbon dioxide emissions would be popular with British voters, polling suggests, as the government moots ways to put a price on carbon that could help tackle the climate crisis and fund a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Carbon-positive Otago plan before council
24 Feb 2021
The Otago Regional Council is considering joining a Carbon Zero Alliance proposed by the Dunedin City Council late last year.
OPINION: Carbon tariffs are not about Australia
24 Feb 2021
Reports that Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, is considering calling for carbon border levies at the G7 summit to be held in London in June have produced a predictable reaction from the Australian government.
Climate threat in energy regulator's sights
24 Feb 2021
United States federal energy regulators say they will examine threats that climate change and extreme weather events pose to the country’s electric reliability in the wake of last week’s deadly Texas freeze that left millions of people without power.
Serville oranges being turned into energy
24 Feb 2021
A pilot scheme will use methane from fermenting fruit to create clean power for Serville's city water plant
Councils debating Climcom recommendations
23 Feb 2021
Greater Wellington and Waikato regional councils’ climate change committees both meet this afternoon to consider, among other things, responses to the Climate Change Commission’s 2021 draft report.
Gas networks eyeing hydrogen
23 Feb 2021
Australia's' natural gas pipeline owners are working to future-proof their $A75 billion in assets amid a global push towards clean energy, running tests to blend hydrogen with gas and produce green methane to replace the fossil fuel.
How corporations gave politicians permission to deny reality
23 Feb 2021
Big companies donated to climate deniers in the US Congress—even while claiming to care about climate change. When those same lawmakers denied the results of the presidential election, the bill came due.
How can soil carbon cut Australia's emissions?
22 Feb 2021
The Australian Government is backing soil carbon – drawing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the land – as a major part of its response to the climate crisis.
Questions over Samoa flood defence project
22 Feb 2021
Flood walls in Samoa financed by the UN’s flagship climate fund are inadequate and could put people in danger, experts warn.
Russian region launches carbon trading plan
22 Feb 2021
In Russia's remote far east, authorities have launched an unexpected experiment: an effort to try out carbon trading and reach net-zero planet-heating emissions by 2025.
IMF looks at climate credit-scores
22 Feb 2021
Vulnerability to climate change is bad for sovereign credit ratings, says the International Monetary Fund.
Amundi to quiz companies over climate action
19 Feb 2021
Amundi, Europe's biggest asset manager, say it will seek more specifics from companies at upcoming shareholder meetings about their plans to reduce emissions.
Put a big fat price on carbon, says OECD chief
18 Feb 2021
OECD Secretary General Ángel Gurría is bowing out with a climate-rallying cry, saying action on environmental crises must be the defining focus of wealthy countries after covid.
Green reforms of energy treaty divide EU
18 Feb 2021
The European Union has renewed its push for greening a major international treaty protecting energy investments, after last-minute wrangling and divisions between member states.
Hopes new WTO boss can calm carbon tensions
17 Feb 2021
New World Trade Organisation head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala brings an awareness of climate issues to the UN trade body, where member states are set to clash over carbon border taxes.
Millions will die if world fails on climate promises
17 Feb 2021
Scientists have looked at conditions in just nine of the world’s 200 nations and found that − if the world keeps its Paris climate promises, of containing global heating to “well below” 2deg by 2100 − millions of lives could be saved.
Overhaul of Europe's farming system on the table
17 Feb 2021
The Farm to Fork Strategy is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aiming to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly.
Let's think big, Germany tells US and China
16 Feb 2021
Germany wants Europe and the United States to strengthen transatlantic ties with a trade deal to abolish industrial tariffs, a WTO reform to increase pressure on China and a joint carbon-emission trading system to protect the climate.
Vote against directors failing the climate, says ISS
16 Feb 2021
Major financial investors are to be urged by the world’s largest shareholder advisory firm to vote against company board members if they fail to address global heating in their roles.
Sinking coal profits prompts rething at AGL
15 Feb 2021
Listed Australian energy company AGL says it will urgently rewrite its business strategy after rapid market change forced it to announce a massive loss in the December half, and as demand for home batteries, remote storage and electric vehicles is starting to “take off.”
China’s energy agency floats increase in renewables target
12 Feb 2021
China’s National Energy Administration is considering an increase in the ambition of the country’s clean energy programme this decade.
Carbon-free future is in reach for US by 2050
12 Feb 2021
The United States − per head of population perhaps the world’s most prodigal emitter of greenhouse gases − can reverse that and have a carbon-free future within three decades, at a cost of no more than $1 per person per day.
Big-emitting businesses could face costly EU carbon levy
11 Feb 2021
Big-emitting Australian businesses that export to Europe could soon face steep carbon levies of more than $70 a tonne unless the federal government imposes emissions reduction policies, according to a new analysis.
China’s crackdown on illegal CFC gases is working
11 Feb 2021
A Chinese government crackdown on producers and buyers of illegal CFC gases is working, research has found.
Bank to stop lending to port over fossil fuels
10 Feb 2021
ANZ will stop lending money to Australia’s biggest coal port, the Port of Newcastle, after adopting new policies last year that prohibit it entering new finance deals for customers with significant exposure to the fossil fuel.
Put talks online, says Gueterres.
9 Feb 2021
Critical negotiations to prepare for November’s Cop26 climate summit will need to take place virtually as the coronavirus pandemic is still not allowing in-person meetings and further delay is not an option, according to UN chief António Guterres.
'Dangerous' push to leave farmers out of Aussie target
9 Feb 2021
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison might be warming to the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, but federal Nationals leader Michael McCormack has thrown a spanner in the works by suggesting agriculture be excluded from the target.
Millions for carbon capture contest
9 Feb 2021
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk is offering $138 million for inventions that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or oceans.
Australian carbon offset prices jump on surging corporate demand
5 Feb 2021
Prices for Australian carbon offset permits have pushed above $17, a new 12-month high, boosted by demand from corporate emitters looking to take advantage of lower prices as the push for stricter long-term emissions targets gains momentum.
Court condemns French government over climate inaction
4 Feb 2021
A Paris court has found the French government responsible for failing to cut emissions in line with its own target, in the country’s first major climate lawsuit.
Ditch GDP and value nature, says report
3 Feb 2021
Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, says a report calling for a new economic framework recognising the importance of ecology.
Ireland uses peat to combat climate change
3 Feb 2021
Ireland’s peat is offering the country a novel way to back the global effort to save the planet from overheating dangerously. It is helping to lock up the carbon emissions which are feeding the steady rise in the Earth’s temperature.
More consultation needed on EU carbon border levy, says China
2 Feb 2021
The European Commission needs to have further discussions with Beijing and other trading partners about its upcoming carbon border levy, a senior Chinese diplomat says.
Is Pacific Forum Zoomed to fail?
2 Feb 2021
Pacific diplomacy hinges on in-person discussion but web-only meetings have fed a growing dispute over the forum’s leadership and purpose.
EXPERTS: Australia must halve emissions by 2030
29 Jan 2021
Australia will effectively be abandoning the Paris agreement unless it makes at least a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaches net zero well before 2050, according to an analysis by policymakers and scientists.
Salla - 'The heat is coming'
29 Jan 2021
Salla, the coldest place in Finland, is making a tongue-in-check bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics, saying thanks to climate change, it expects that by then it will have sand for beach volleyball, lakes for swimming and snow-free hills for downhill bike-riding.
Biden signs sweeping orders on climate change
28 Jan 2021
United States president Joe Biden has unveiled a radical change in direction from the Trump era by halting fossil fuel activity on public lands and directing the United States government to start a full-frontal effort to lower planet-heating emissions.
Two-thirds of people say climate change is an emergency
28 Jan 2021
Almost two-thirds of the 1.2 million people surveyed in about 50 nations say global warming is a crisis.
US promises 'significant' investment in climate action
27 Jan 2021
The United States will “make good” on financial commitments to developing countries struggling with climate change, top US climate envoy John Kerry has told a summit of world leaders.
'Gas is over,' says EU bank chief
26 Jan 2021
The European Investment Bank says it will end all funding for fossil fuels before the end of the year.
Fuel industry leaders join Aussie emissions reduction panel
26 Jan 2021
Fossil-fuel industry leaders and a controversial economist have joined a committee responsible for ensuring the integrity of projects that get climate funding in Australia.
Reformed trade rules could help save the climate
26 Jan 2021
Reformed trade rules could provide a climate dividend of the rancorous Brexit process of leaving the European Union.
Biden's Keystone death sentence means oil industry must innovate
26 Jan 2021
In one of his first acts of office, United States President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that effectively kills the Keystone XL pipeline project.
US return boosts chances of COP26 success
22 Jan 2021
The United States' return to the Paris Agreement is vital to the next round of negotiations, says former New Zealand climate ambassador Dr Adrian Macey.
Biden takes US back into Paris
22 Jan 2021
Joe Biden has moved to reinstate the US to the Paris climate agreement just hours after being sworn in as president, as his administration rolls out a cavalcade of executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis.
Countries signal greater climate ambition but ‘step change’ needed on road to Glasgow
14 Dec 2020
As 2020 comes to a close, world leaders have sent a signal of their willingness to step up their climate ambition, at a virtual event celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement.
Companies could have profits from breaking environment laws stripped under Australian reforms
Today 11:00am
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
Today 11:00am
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
Today 11:00am
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
Fri 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
Today 11:00am
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
Today 11:00am
Only 28% of countries have met a UN call to submit new plans on addressing nature loss – a year after the original deadline.
