International: All stories
Arctic ends winter with lowest sea ice cover on record – scientists
31 Mar 2025
The new record shows how Arctic sea ice has ‘fundamentally changed’ from earlier decades, scientists said.
What the ESG backlash reveals—and what comes next
31 Mar 2025
There was a time, not long ago, when the corporate world spoke with confidence about Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Every major firm had a sustainability strategy. Reporting teams expanded. Investor decks were reworked. Boards set net-zero targets, and executives attended climate summits. The shift felt real—perhaps even irreversible.
Global soil moisture in ‘permanent’ decline due to climate change
31 Mar 2025
A new study warns that global declines in soil moisture in the 21st century could mark a “permanent” shift in the world’s water cycle.
EU appears to back down on carbon levy on international shipping
28 Mar 2025
The long-awaited carbon levy on international shipping that was to supply vital climate finance looks set to be significantly diluted, after the EU appeared to be backing down in global talks, in a blow to vulnerable countries.
Parisians vote to ban cars from 500 more streets
28 Mar 2025
Parisians have voted in favour of pedestrianising 500 more streets in the French capital, bolstering City Hall’s ongoing campaign to reduce car usage and enhance air quality.
Climate investors see opportunity in Trump’s anti-climate push
28 Mar 2025
US President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies spell opportunity for some climate investors.
Green hydrogen has stalled in nearly every corner of Australia. So why is the government still revving it up?
28 Mar 2025
The green hydrogen revolution wasn’t supposed to go like this. In September, the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, declared Australia “the green hydrogen capital of the world” with “50-plus companies on the ground” and a pipeline of investments worth $200bn.
COP30 president vows to defend global climate fight
28 Mar 2025
Brazil's UN COP30 president on Tuesday said that this year's summit would aim to defend climate action by governments against "serious" geopolitical challenges, while also pushing the private sector to contribute more to the fight.
Why middle class Brits who think collapse is coming still stay silent
28 Mar 2025
OPINION: In one hand, an oat latte. In the other, a phone with social feeds full of doom-scroll posts about the end of the world. Across Britain, a quiet transformation is happening.
Indonesia confirms $20 billion climate deal despite US exit
27 Mar 2025
The Indonesian government confirmed a $20 billion commitment from rich nations to help it shut polluting coal plants and transition to cleaner energy sources remains in place, despite the US exit from the agreement.
China to expand carbon trading market to steel, cement and aluminium
27 Mar 2025
China released plans on Wednesday to expand its carbon trading market into the steel, cement and aluminium smelting industries, a move that will require an additional 1,500 firms to purchase credits to cover their emissions, the environment ministry said.
Colombia’s top oil company concealed environmental damages: Investigation
27 Mar 2025
A newly released investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Earthworks into the workings of Colombia’s largest company, oil and gas giant Ecopetrol, reveals a pattern of environmental negligence and corporate misconduct.
Strong support among Europeans for banning fossil fuel ads, study finds
27 Mar 2025
Almost half of people surveyed across the European Union are in favour of banning fossil fuel advertising — nearly twice as many who oppose such a move, according to a new study.
Farmers are reeling from Trump’s attacks on agricultural research
27 Mar 2025
A "rollercoaster" of funding cuts and layoffs have gutted critical agricultural research projects across the nation.
More European oil refineries to close, convert in next 10 years, panel says
27 Mar 2025
European oil refineries will have to adapt to the energy transition or face a heightened risk of closure by 2035, a panel of executives said at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne on Monday.
Climate change causes rising global electricity demand
26 Mar 2025
Cooling demand as a result of record temperatures was a significant driver of power generation last year, according to the International Energy Agency.
NOAA cuts more key weather data gathering after layoffs
26 Mar 2025
The National Weather Service is reducing weather balloon launches at six more locations in the U.S. and temporarily suspending them at two more places due to staffing shortages, the agency announced Thursday afternoon.
US Supreme Court will not hear novel youth-led climate change case
26 Mar 2025
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the long-running case, known as Juliana, which helped spawn legal strategies widely adapted to other lawsuits over climate.
Clean hydrogen hype fades as high costs dampen demand
26 Mar 2025
Analysts say governments are not doing enough to get companies to buy green hydrogen to clean up transport and heavy industry
Glacier melt threatens water supplies for two billion people, UN warns
26 Mar 2025
Climate change and “unsustainable human activities” are driving “unprecedented changes” to mountains and glaciers, threatening access to fresh water for more than two billion people, a UN report warns.
Climate sceptics have new favourite graph; it shows the opposite of what they claim
26 Mar 2025
The research actually makes the case that CO2 is the dominant control on Earth’s temperature.
Europe’s 90% climate target for 2040 under pressure as delays add up
25 Mar 2025
The EU is aiming to slash CO2 emissions by 55% in 2030 before going climate-neutral in 2050. But a political battle rages over the speed of reduction in the two decades between.
Britain considering linking with EU carbon market
25 Mar 2025
Britain is actively considering the case for linking its Emissions Trading System (ETS) with the European Union's carbon market ahead of a UK-EU Summit in May, the government said on Thursday.
Ahead of Brics, Brazil official slams developed countries for ‘no interest’ in helping others
25 Mar 2025
A high-ranking Brazilian government official issued a broad criticism of Western developed countries including France on Thursday, in the run-up to a meeting of Brics energy ministers in the South American country’s capital.
JPMorgan asset management unit quits industry climate coalition
25 Mar 2025
JPMorgan Chase & Co said its asset management unit has left a flagship industry climate effort, a blow to the group that had paused operations in January in an effort to halt defections amid political pressure from U.S. Republicans.
Climate groups could beat Trump in fight for $20B. It may be too late.
25 Mar 2025
The Trump administration is hitting legal roadblocks in its attempt to revoke $20 billion in climate grants, but its efforts are already achieving one of the president’s key aims: throttling a crucial part of Joe Biden’s clean energy agenda.
‘One-third’ of 2012 soya crop failure in the Americas was due to climate change
25 Mar 2025
Climate change was responsible for just over one-third of the simultaneous soya bean crop failures across Argentina, Brazil and the US in 2012, according to a new attribution study.
Germany’s €100bn climate funding
24 Mar 2025
Germany’s parliament has voted to create a €500bn defence and infrastructure fund and relax “constitutionally-protected debt rules,” with “the last-minute backing of the Greens” in return for guarantees that €100bn of the funds destined for infrastructure would be allocated for climate and economic transformation investments.
UK: new national forest to see 20 million trees planted
24 Mar 2025
Twenty million trees will be planted and 2,500 hectares (6,178 acres) of new woodland created in the west of England as part of a "national forest" drive, the government has announced.
Norway's Equinor scales back climate ambitions as wind changes
24 Mar 2025
Equinor has already scaled back its target for installed renewable energy capacity to 10-12 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, from 12-16 GW.
World Glacier Day: UN warns of ‘avalanche of cascading impacts’ as ice melt increases
24 Mar 2025
Five of the past six years have witnessed the most rapid glacier retreat on record.
India records severe heat weeks ahead of schedule
24 Mar 2025
Severe heatwave conditions have begun sweeping across eastern and western India unusually early in the season, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in several regions.
Supermarkets accused of major methane ‘blindspot’
24 Mar 2025
Leading supermarkets are failing to address the methane pollution in their supply chains, a new report has found, putting their own climate pledges at risk.
Greenpeace verdict is 'weaponisation of legal system', advocacy groups say
21 Mar 2025
Campaigners condemn North Dakota jury's ruling as Greenpeace must pay Energy Transfer at least $660m.
"Not silver bullets": COP30 CEO downplays impact of yearly climate summits
21 Mar 2025
Ana Toni stressed the importance of year-round action by business, subnational government and finance, energy, transport and agriculture ministries.
Time is not the driving influence of forest carbon storage, study finds
21 Mar 2025
It is commonly assumed that as forest ecosystems age, they accumulate and store (sequester) more carbon. A study based at the University of Michigan Biological Station has untangled carbon cycling over two centuries and found that it's more nuanced than that.
$800m pledge keeps Australia's green hydrogen dream alive
21 Mar 2025
The Albanese Labor government has pledged more than $800 million in production incentives to a green hydrogen development in remote Western Australia, defying mounting scepticism over the future of the country's green fuel industry.
Trump is tackling every 'emergency' except the important one: climate change
21 Mar 2025
To hear President Trump describe it, the U.S. is beset by emergencies. We allegedly have an energy emergency, a government waste emergency and a foreign trade emergency.
Why action on extreme heat in Indian cities is falling short
21 Mar 2025
Local governments face the difficult task of preparing communities and infrastructure for a warmer world - all while urbanisation accelerates and extreme weather becomes more frequent and intense.
Trump vows to immediately ramp up US production of 'beautiful, clean coal'
20 Mar 2025
President Trump this week continued to make his environmental priorities clear by vowing to open up hundreds of coal power plants in the United States in an effort to advance competition against China.
Factcheck: Why Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is wrong about UK's net-zero goal
20 Mar 2025
The leader of the opposition Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch, has shattered the political consensus on climate change in a speech attacking the UK's net-zero by 2050 target.
UN hails rare climate success story as emissions from construction stop rising
20 Mar 2025
Emissions from the building and construction sector have stopped rising for the first time since 2020, a new United Nations report says.
Science-based targets for ocean stewardship unveiled
20 Mar 2025
Businesses can now set science-based targets covering ocean and maritime protection, under the latest guidance introduced by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN).
'Fishing boat for energy' will make hydrogen as it sails
20 Mar 2025
Wind power has been rising significantly in recent years, and now accounts for about 8% of the world's energy production. By the end of the decade, it will be the second-largest renewable source after solar, having surpassed hydropower, according to the International Energy Agency.
Eat grass-fed beef, help the planet? Research says not so simple
20 Mar 2025
For cattle fattened in fields instead of feedlots, the grass may be greener, but the carbon emissions are not.
Some US scientists stick with the IPCC despite the administration pulling out of international climate work
19 Mar 2025
A handful of U.S. researchers joined a critical meeting on climate and cities this week in Japan. "For me, this process is so important that if I had to self-fund, I would," said one.
Conservative party to ditch commitment to net zero in UK by 2050
19 Mar 2025
Kemi Badenoch is dropping her party's commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, as she launches the Conservatives' widest policy review in a generation.
Peruvian farmer goes head to head with German energy giant in landmark climate case
19 Mar 2025
A landmark climate lawsuit opens in a German court Monday, as a Peruvian farmer sues a German energy giant over the threat to his home from a mountain lake overflowing with glacier meltwater.
A strong case for investing in climate mitigation and adaptation to avoid damage to the global economy
19 Mar 2025
Investment in climate-change mitigation and adaptation to limit global warming to 2C by 2100 would greatly reduce economic damage, and the cost of inaction is equivalent to 11% to 27% of cumulative GDP, a report says.
China's BYD launches EV charging system it says works nearly as fast as a fill up
19 Mar 2025
China's energy and auto giant BYD has announced an ultra fast EV charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill up at the pumps.
Sydney records most rain since weather station opened in 1858
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Sydney's wettest August in 27 years has tipped the city's recent climate into uncharted territory.
A coal-fired plant in Michigan was to close. But Trump forced it to keep running at $1m a day
Today 11:30am
Donald Trump has made several unusual moves to elongate the era of coal, such as giving the industry exemptions from pollution rules. But the gambit to keep one Michigan coal-fired power station running has been extraordinary – by forcing it to remain open even against the wishes of its operator.
Is historically arid Beijing ready for a wetter future?
Today 11:30am
Beijing's mountainous northern Huairou district and neighbouring Miyun district received a year's worth of rain in a single week, triggering flash floods that devastated entire villages and killed 44 people in the deadliest flood since 2012.
EU wildfires hit new record as flames scorch area larger than Cyprus
Today 11:30am
The area burned this year has exceeded the 1 million hectare mark for the first time since records started in 2006.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
Wed 20 Aug 2025
When climate change undermines the climate plan.
Challenges persist in bid to mine the deep sea, even after boost from Trump
29 Jul 2025
After years of delay, the deep-sea mining plans of Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) now appear to be progressing as it pursues a controversial new path to securing a license to mine in international waters under U.S. jurisdiction.
India needs $467 billion climate finance by 2030 to decarbonise 4 key sectors
Today 11:30am
India will need to mobilise USD $467 billion in climate finance by 2030 to put four of its most carbon-intensive sectors – power, steel, cement and transport – on a low-carbon pathway.
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
13 Aug 2025
Samoa, Fiji and Tonga among the worst affected amid warning the disease and others will become ‘more common and more serious’ as the planet warms.
Iconic Antarctic species at risk amid 'regime shift', with 'rapid and self-perpetuating changes'
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Africa’s top climate change challenges: a fairer deal on phasing out fossil fuels and mobilising funds
Fri 22 Aug 2025
African countries have made binding commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, they will need to shift to renewable energy and stop mining and using fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Bolivia will choose a new president but environmental activists see little hope of progress
Fri 22 Aug 2025
Many Indigenous and environmental leaders doubt the election will bring progress in stopping deforestation, wildfires or pollution in the Amazon.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
Wed 20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
