International: All stories
Billions of acres of cropland await the Big Thaw
17 Feb 2020
As the climate warms in the decades ahead, billions of acres, most of them in the northern hemisphere, will become suitable for agriculture and could, if ploughed, emit a massive, planet-altering amount of greenhouse gases.
Parcels might join people on city buses
17 Feb 2020
Sydney is looking at using its public transport system to cut the number of delivery vans clogging its streets.
New BP chief vows net-zero emissions by 2050
14 Feb 2020
BP's new chief executive Bernard Looney has outlined plans to cut the company's carbon emissions from its operations and barrels produced to net-zero by 2050.
Cities turn to freewheeling public transport
14 Feb 2020
In the United States, once the home of car culture, cities are increasingly experimenting with free public transport. But the idea is not an American preserve: it’s catching on fast across the globe.
Antarctic melt led to 3m sea level rise 120,000 years ago
14 Feb 2020
Mass melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet, driven by warmer ocean temperatures, was a major cause of extreme sea level rise more than 100,000 years ago, according to new research.
Renewables to power outback mine
14 Feb 2020
By ANDREW SPENCE | Australian mining company Oz Minerals plans to power its proposed West Musgrave copper nickel mine in central Australia with up to 80 per cent renewables.
Splatter tests show decline in insect numbers
14 Feb 2020
Two scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades.
Study blames fossil fuel pollution for 4m deaths
13 Feb 2020
Air pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for more than 4 million premature deaths around the world each year and costs the global economy about $US8 billion ($NZ12.37 billion) a day, according to a study.
Trump budget slashes environment funding
13 Feb 2020
President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2021 calls for significant reductions to US environmental programmes at federal agencies, including a 26 per cent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency.
BBC to film the Greta Thunberg story
13 Feb 2020
The BBC will produce a television series about 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Record growth sends Australia's emissions soaring
12 Feb 2020
Emissions from Australia’s largest industrial emitters have surged to 60 per cent above 2005 levels, thanks to record growth in the oil and gas, transport and mining sectors, analysts say.
Bankers' book delivers stark climate change warning
12 Feb 2020
The Green Swan brings a clear message from people who should know: bankers say the climate crisis means major change lies ahead.
Rise of climate anxiety 'overwhelming and terrifying’
12 Feb 2020
Medical experts are concerned that young people’s mental health is being particularly hit by reality of the climate crisis.
Maps of Europe predict scale of climate catastrophe
12 Feb 2020
A series of detailed maps have laid bare the scale of possible forest fires, floods, droughts and deluges that Europe could face by the end of the century without urgent action to adapt to and confront global heating.
Bushfire towns find water contaminated
12 Feb 2020
Communities affected by the Australian bushfires are starting to reckon with a complex, expensive aftermath: the threat to their drinking water.
Most nations ignore climate plans update
12 Feb 2020
The Marshall Islands, Suriname and Norway have submitted plans for tougher action to tackle climate change before a five-year milestone of the Paris Agreement in 2020 - but almost 200 others - including New Zealand - have ignored an informal February 9 deadline.
Gates eyes $830m hydrogen superyacht
11 Feb 2020
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is hoping to hit the seas in the world's first hydrogen-powered superyacht - and it will set him back around $US830 million.
Mystery deaths focus battle for the butterflies
11 Feb 2020
The deaths of two butterfly conservationists have drawn focus to a troubling tangle of disputes, resentments and violence.
Mining leads to flooding in coal capital
11 Feb 2020
Major flooding from just a few hours of heavy rain in Samarinda, Indonesia’s coal-mining capital, has underscored the severity of the environmental degradation being carried out by the industry, officials say.
Antarctica logs hottest day on record
10 Feb 2020
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3deg, beating the previous record by 0.8deg.
Europe falls off the pace with solar power
10 Feb 2020
Europe is falling well behind in the race to install enough solar power to keep the rise in global temperatures below dangerous levels, and to reach its own renewable energy targets.
Living fabrics can help to clean the air
10 Feb 2020
Mushroom, pineapple and algae: it sounds like the topping for a rather unusual pizza. In fact, they could be the crucial ingredients in the wardrobe of the future as growing numbers of designers try to create fashion that doesn’t harm the environment.
Trump blanks climate crisis in State of the Union
7 Feb 2020
In his State of the Union address to a divided Congress, President Trump president has extolled his own role in making the nation the world’s leading oil and natural gas producer.
Johnson promises urgent climate action
7 Feb 2020
Boris Johnson has promised “urgent action” on the climate crisis, taking personal leadership of this year’s UN climate talks after a blistering attack by the sacked former minister who was to lead them.
Japan races to build coal-burning power plants
7 Feb 2020
Just beyond the windows of Satsuki Kanno’s apartment overlooking Tokyo Bay, a behemoth from a bygone era will soon rise: a coal-burning power plant, part of a buildup of coal power that is unheard-of for an advanced economy.
Does Britain know what it's doing with Glasgow?
5 Feb 2020
Developing countries and climate campaigners are growing increasingly concerned that the UK lacks a clear strategy for hosting vital UN talks in Glasgow this year.
Timber buildings can slow climate change
5 Feb 2020
European and US scientists have a root-and-branch answer to the challenge of tomorrow’s cities: switch to wood construct timber buildings and reduce the risk of even more devastating global temperature rise.
Global waste problem looks like a job for the IoT
4 Feb 2020
The Internet of Things can be used to develop smarter and more effective ways of managing and reducing waste.
Give them a shot of the truth
4 Feb 2020
Australia’s bushfire crisis was remarkable for the deluge of disinformation spread by climate deniers.
Groups plan to sue Trump over airline emissions
4 Feb 2020
Protest groups plan to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency for failing to regulate aircraft emissions after a 2016 agency determination that those emissions pose a danger to public health.
Tropical forests losing CO2 ability, says study
3 Feb 2020
The world’s tropical forests are losing their ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, while boreal forests are absorbing emissions at an increasingly fast rate, a new study finds.
Military man takes command of the Amazon
3 Feb 2020
President Jair Bolsonaro has caused widespread dismay by appointing an ex-military colleague to oversee protection of the Amazon.
Asian countries spurn and burn waste imports
3 Feb 2020
Two years after China’s ban on other countries' waste, Southeast Asian nations are struggling to deal with import surge, and are enacting bans of their own.
Climate crisis 'increasing violence against women'
31 Jan 2020
Climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls, while gender-based exploitation is in turn hampering our ability to tackle the crises, a major report has concluded.
Protesters ‘call bullshit’ on News Corp coverage
31 Jan 2020
Campaigners from Extinction Rebellion have dumped a load of manure outside the Queensland office of News Corp to protest against the media giant’s coverage of climate change.
Guardian bans ads from fossil fuel firms
31 Jan 2020
The Guardian will no longer accept advertising from oil and gas companies, becoming the first major global news organisation to institute an outright ban on taking money from companies that extract fossil fuels.
Rewilding the Arctic would be a mammoth task
31 Jan 2020
It would be a monumental task to start rewilding the Arctic, but the climate payoff could be mammoth.
Tech giants power record surge in renewables
30 Jan 2020
The world’s biggest tech companies fuelled a record surge in the amount of renewable energy sold directly to global corporations last year, according to new figures.
Oslo court backs Arctic oil exploration
30 Jan 2020
An Oslo appeals court has endorsed Norway’s plan for new oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.
State marks first for coastal building rules
30 Jan 2020
New Jersey will become the first US state to require that builders take into account the impact of climate change, including rising sea levels, in order to win government approval for projects.
Amazon staff risk jobs to protest climate policies
30 Jan 2020
Amazon has threatened with dismissal hundreds of employees who are demanding the company adopts more eco-conscious practices.
GM to invest billions in EV plant
30 Jan 2020
General Motors will invest more than $2 billion in its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to make the facility the automaker’s first devoted entirely to electric vehicles.
Race to exploit seabed set to wreak havoc
29 Jan 2020
New research warns that ‘blue acceleration’ – a global goldrush to claim the ocean floor – is already impacting on the environment.
China, India face crticism over potent pollutants
29 Jan 2020
A new study suggests that China and India might not be living up to recent pledges to dramatically reduce emissions of a greenhouse gas nearly 13,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
How this science could help us cut emissions
29 Jan 2020
A sense of climate emergency is permeating the global consciousness thanks to high-profile campaigning, but many of us have been slow to actually make changes in the way we live.
City buses might moove to dung-drive
29 Jan 2020
Not in their wildest dreams did the residents of Karachi’s Cattle Colony think that the filth they were living in for more than four decades would generate wealth as well as energy.
MORE PLASTIC: Big Oil’s Plan B already in the pipeline
28 Jan 2020
As public concern about plastic pollution rises, the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries are pouring billions of dollars into new plants intended to make millions more tonnes of plastic than they now pump out.
Welcome to 2020: It’s hot – and getting hotter
28 Jan 2020
The year is less than four weeks old, but scientists already know that carbon dioxide emissions will continue to head upwards – as they have every year since measurements began – leading to a continuation of the Earth’s rising heat.
Conservation scientists grieving after bushfires
28 Jan 2020
For many conservation biologists and land managers, the unprecedented extent and ferocity of the Australian bushfires has incinerated much more than koalas and their kin.
Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight
28 Jan 2020
The Doomsday Clock, a symbol created in 1947 to represent humankind’s proximity to global catastrophe, is now just 100 seconds to midnight for the first time.
“There was so much death.” A toxic algal bloom is ravaging Australia’s southern coast – warming waters are to blame
Fri 29 Aug 2025
Three ingredients are required for an algal bloom to get going – temperature, the right conditions and food. South Australia had all the preconditions necessary, thanks to climate change.
We used to stash gold in Fort Knox. What if we did the same with carbon?
Fri 29 Aug 2025
If we could convince the masses that waste carbon dioxide is sacred and worth hoarding — like gold — one of our most existential problems might solve itself.
China's carbon market to introduce absolute emissions caps from 2027
Wed 27 Aug 2025
China will tighten its carbon trading market by introducing absolute emissions caps in some industries for the first time starting by 2027.
Apple Watch not a 'CO2-neutral product,' German court finds
Thu 28 Aug 2025
Apple can no longer advertise its Apple Watch as a "CO2-neutral product" in Germany, following a court ruling on Tuesday that upheld a complaint from environmentalists, finding that the U.S. tech company had misled consumers.
What happens to net zero if the trees don’t survive?
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.
Singapore seals carbon credit deal with Thailand, its first South-east Asian partner
Thu 28 Aug 2025
The agreement, the eighth for Singapore, helps both nations meet climate targets under the Paris Agreement, directing finance to Thai projects.
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'
22 Aug 2025
Scientists say there is emerging evidence of abrupt and potentially unstoppable changes in the Antarctic environment.
Is Africa about to see the solar energy boom it needs?
Thu 28 Aug 2025
African countries imported a record number of solar panels in the past year, which could be the beginning of a green energy boom on the continent.
Lessons from the Incas: How llamas, terraces and trees could help the Andes survive climate change
Thu 28 Aug 2025
New research suggests solutions may lie in environmental knowledge that the Incas and their predecessors developed centuries ago.
Brazil issues last-ditch plea for countries to submit climate plans ahead of COP30
20 Aug 2025
Only 28 countries have submitted carbon-cutting proposals to the UN, with some of the biggest emitters yet to produce plans.
