International: All stories
The surprising reasons why people ignore the facts
30 Jul 2020
Picture yourself giving nearly the same speech hundreds of times, filled with rock-solid facts, detailed charts, and impassioned moral pleas. Despite years of these efforts, you’re hoarse and exhausted and can’t shake the sense that people still aren’t listening.
How to hide from a drone (the subtle art of ghosting)
30 Jul 2020
Drones of all sizes are being used by environmental advocates to monitor deforestation, by conservationists to track poachers, and by journalists and activists to document large protests.
Deutsche Bank to cut ties with coal companies
29 Jul 2020
Deutsche Bank will end business worldwide with the companies most exposed to coal mining by 2025 at the latest, as part of a revamp of its policies on financing the fossil fuel industry.
Chinese fishing vessels sound alarm off Galapagos
29 Jul 2020
Ecuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands.
Big Oil helps fund powerful police groups in US cities
29 Jul 2020
Big corporations accused of driving environmental and health inequalities in black and brown communities through toxic and climate-changing pollution are also funding powerful police groups in major US cities, according to a new investigation.
OPINION: I’m bewildered that Trump would imperil America by abandoning the Paris Agreement
28 Jul 2020
By BAN KI-MOON | The Paris agreement to tackle climate change is an extraordinary opportunity. In a remarkable display of unity, almost every nation on Earth has agreed to make critical changes that will help humanity avoid disaster. But Donald Trump is walking away.
Earth's biggest ice sheet more vulnerable than thought
28 Jul 2020
Shocking evidence suggests that the last time the East Antarctic ice sheet collapsed, it added more than three metres to sea level rise, and that it’s likely to happen again.
Campaigners want to break up Big Tech and Big Oil
28 Jul 2020
When Sam Kern started working at Google four years ago, she believed she could drive change as an insider. If she could just get the ear of the right executives, Kern thought, she could convince them to move the company in a new direction on climate and sustainability.
Human climate change causes record Arctic heat
27 Jul 2020
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists has pinned the strange weather and record heat in the Siberian Arctic firmly on human-induced climate change.
Telework helps affluent and has few climate benefits
27 Jul 2020
Back in 2018 – in the pre-pandemic world – about 5 per cent of the US workforce teleworked from home. That changed dramatically with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic; by May 2020 that number had jumped to about 35 per cent.
Make nature part of 'build, build, build' policy
27 Jul 2020
Instead of blaming protected newts for thwarting the “build, build, build” agenda, politicians and developers must incorporate green thinking into the design of new infrastructure, according to the chair of the UK government’s conservation watchdog.
Renewables overtake fossil fuels in EU power generation
24 Jul 2020
Renewable sources have overtaken coal, oil and gas in EU electricity generation for the first time, new analysis shows.
Cycling and walking can help drive Australia’s recovery
24 Jul 2020
What do bike paths and walk-friendly streets have to do with economic recovery from a pandemic-induced recession? How could removing a car parking space benefit a local business? Instead of considering such questions, building roads for cars is often seen as the obvious answer to “kick-start” the economy.
GLOBAL HEATING: Range of evidence widens
24 Jul 2020
Doomsayers and hopemongers alike may need to revise their climate predictions after a study that almost rules out the most optimistic forecasts for global heating while downplaying the likelihood of worst-case scenarios.
UN chief confronts China over coal boom,
24 Jul 2020
UN secretary-general António Guterres has urged China to stop funding coal projects, warning the Paris climate agreement goals will slip out of reach if the world fails to deliver a green recovery to covid-19.
New Brazilian map unmasks illegal foresters
23 Jul 2020
Shoppers should have a bone to pick with Brazil. A new map shows just how much of the country's beef and animal feed exports are tainted by the illegal destruction of rainforest and savannah.
Student accuses Australia of misleading investors on climate risk
23 Jul 2020
A Melbourne university student has launched what has been described as a world-first legal case against the Australian government, accusing it of misleading investors in sovereign bonds by failing to disclose the financial risk caused by the climate crisis.
How many polar bears will be left in 2100?
23 Jul 2020
Researchers have long known that polar bear populations will almost certainly suffer as a result of climate change. But a new study projects that by the end of the century, the bears may exist only in a few subpopulations in the northernmost region of their range.
Vietnam’s energy policy marks turning point for coal
23 Jul 2020
As other countries pull out of Vietnam’s coal sector, Chinese banks have become the lender of last resort for struggling projects.
Australia has a bad idea in Antarctica
22 Jul 2020
Australia wants to build a 2.7km concrete runway in Antarctica, the world’s biggest natural reserve. The plan, if approved, would have the largest footprint of any project in the continent’s history.
Is corona a crisis too far for far-right outsiders?
22 Jul 2020
In recent years, far-right political parties in Europe have capitalised on crises to build their support bases.
We might meet Paris, say officials
21 Jul 2020
New Zealand’s 2030 emissions reduction target might be consistent with the Paris Agreement – it all depends on how you look at it, officials have told the Government.
Morgan Stanley tallying its climate impact
21 Jul 2020
Morgan Stanley will become the first major United States bank to publicly disclose how much its loans and investments contribute to climate change.
Climate-science denial is feeding the covid-19 pandemic
21 Jul 2020
After the fossil fuel industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars undermining climate science, it’s easy to see how epidemiology came next.
Island states urge EU to link to tougher target
20 Jul 2020
VULNERABLE COUNTRIES are urging the EU to link its coronavirus recovery funds and seven-year budget to a tougher 2030 climate target.
Don’t abandon plans for high-speed rail in Australia
20 Jul 2020
The Grattan Institute’s call to abandon plans for any high-speed rail network in Australia fails to look at the wider benefits such a project can bring by way of more productive economies and more sustainable towns and cities.
Portugal ends coal burning two years ahead of schedule
20 Jul 2020
Portugal is the third EU country this year to announce early closure of its last coal plants, as rising carbon costs and competition from gas and clean energy bite.
South Korea backtracks on green promise
20 Jul 2020
For South Korea it seems, climate care is a case of going green at home – and doing the opposite overseas.
Plunge in mass transit ridership deals huge blow
20 Jul 2020
Transit agencies are asking Congress for relief as commuters return to their cars and fare revenues tank. Meanwhile, driving direction requests - and carbon emissions - soar.
Australian flying car wins $1m grant
20 Jul 2020
The New South Wales government has awarded almost $1m from a regional grants fund to a company developing what deputy premier John Barilaro describes as an electric flying car.
We're encroaching on Antarctica’s last wild places
17 Jul 2020
Since Western explorers discovered Antarctica 200 years ago, human activity has been increasing. Now, more than 30 countries operate scientific stations in Antarctica and more than 50,000 tourists visit each year.
US eyes climate disaster, but Biden plan might just work
17 Jul 2020
The world’s food supply is imperiled by a climate crisis already upon us, and Joe Biden this week put forward an agenda to address it that’s as bold as you could hope from a man who actually intends to get elected.
Official dietary guidelines are harming the planet, study finds
17 Jul 2020
Official dietary advice across the world is harming both the environment and people’s health, according to scientists who have carried out the most comprehensive assessment of national dietary guidelines to date.
Buffett coal-country utility wants to cut coal
17 Jul 2020
PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy, is a company aiming to ramp up its use of renewable energy at the same time as it navigates some extreme differences of opinion about what the energy future should look like.
Methane levels have hit a scary record high
16 Jul 2020
While the world has been focused on a global pandemic and widespread protests, another crisis is gathering in the atmosphere.
VERTICAL CRUISE SHIPS: How to remake housing towers
16 Jul 2020
After 3000 people in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were placed under the harshest coronavirus lockdown in Australia so far, acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly referred to the towers as “vertical cruise ships”.
EU spent lots on fossil fuels during energy crisis
16 Jul 2020
France, Germany and Italy have collectively spent $44 billion on fossil fuels during the coronavirus crisis, compared to $29 billion for clean energy, according to fresh data released yesterday.
Powerful backers support a UK nuclear future
16 Jul 2020
Insulating homes and installing renewable energy are the cheapest answers to climate change. Yet powerful backers urge a UK nuclear future.
Heat might leave tropical trees unable to germinate
16 Jul 2020
If a plant can’t germinate, it’s heading for extinction. For many tropical trees, conditions could soon become too hot to procreate.
Car tyres major source of ocean microplastics
15 Jul 2020
More than 200,000 tonnes of tiny plastic particles are blown from roads into the oceans every year, according to research.
STUDY SUCCESS: No doubts, carbon pricing works
15 Jul 2020
Putting a price on carbon should reduce emissions, because it makes dirty production processes more expensive than clean ones, right?
UK premier faces court over covid-19 recovery
14 Jul 2020
Lawyers who stopped the expansion of Heathrow Airport because it would be bad for the climate are now turning their sights on Boris Johnson's covid-19 economic recovery plans.
Melting glacier yields newspapers from 1966 plane crash
14 Jul 2020
COPIES of Indian newspapers onboard an Air India jet that crashed into Mont Blanc in the 1960s have been revealed by melting ice on the mountain’s Bossons glacier.
The plan to unite Biden and Bernie is finally here
13 Jul 2020
Once upon a time, many moons ago — ie back in April — Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders agreed to exit the race and join forces with his mortal frenemy Joe Biden to help the former vice-president take the White House.
GAS CURSE: Mozambique’s multi-billion dollar gamble
13 Jul 2020
A decade after prospectors struck gas off Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, a consortium led by Total is signing contracts worth $16 billion to exploit it.
Which species will win and lose in a warmer climate?
13 Jul 2020
As the global climate shifts, it’s important to know which species have adaptations to survive. Our research published today in PNAS found it largely depends on where they evolved.
Nature doesn't trust us any more
13 Jul 2020
Frozen ground in the Arctic is thawing, harming indigenous people’s hunting livelihoods and destabilising buildings and roads across the rapidly warming region.
First State to divest thermal coal assets
10 Jul 2020
One of Australia's biggest industry superannuation funds plans to sell down its investments in thermal coal miners in a bid to protect its members from the financial impact of climate change.
CO2 in atmosphere nearing levels of 15m years ago
10 Jul 2020
The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is approaching a level not seen in 15m years and perhaps never previously experienced by a hominoid, according to the authors of a study.
Warming waters could see fewer common fish
10 Jul 2020
As many as 60 per cent of the world's fish species could struggle to breed and reproduce if climate change causes the Earth to warm by 5deg over the next 80 years, according to a new study.
Battery subsidy scheme set for 'urgent' overhaul as costs run out of control
16 Dec 2025
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced big changes to the government's battery subsidy scheme amid claims most of its $2.3 billion budget has been spent in just six months.
EPA erases references to human-caused climate change from websites
19 Dec 2025
EPA has scrubbed references to people’s contribution to rising temperatures from some of its climate change webpages.
Verra cancels four tree planting projects in China. And starts reviews of 45 more projects
16 Dec 2025
“Multiple carbon projects in China are facing serious allegations regarding the authenticity of government approval documents."
France updates its 2050 carbon neutrality roadmap
17 Dec 2025
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, France released a revamped climate plan promising to phase out oil and gas and sharply increase electricity use.
Net-zero scenario is ‘cheapest option’ for UK, says energy system operator
15 Dec 2025
A scenario that meets the “net-zero by 2050” goal would be the “cheapest” option for the UK, according to modelling by the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
The ecological havens flourishing beneath power lines
19 Dec 2025
Initiatives to foster native wildflowers, grasses and shrubs are turning utility corridors into wildlife corridors.
‘Not normal’: Climate crisis supercharged deadly monsoon floods in Asia
12 Dec 2025
Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’.
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore and seabirds
19 Dec 2025
Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’
18 Dec 2025
Region known as ‘world’s refrigerator’ is heating up as much as four times as quickly as global average, Noaa experts say.
Are rainforests now a cause of, rather than the answer to, climate change?
15 Dec 2025
A new study finds that Africa’s forests, responsible for one-fifth of global carbon removal, are beginning to generate carbon as the result of human activity.
Thousands of climate disasters are not included in official reports from Amazonian countries
12 Dec 2025
More than 12,500 extreme weather events impacted the Amazon and its population in 10 years, but countries have not generated enough information about it, according to a new scientific study.
UN environment report 'hijacked' by US and others over fossil fuels, top scientist says
11 Dec 2025
A key UN report on the state of the global environment has been "hijacked" by the United States and other countries who were unwilling to go along with the scientific findings, the co-chair has told the BBC.
