International: All stories
Catholic church denounces Amazon policies
1 Nov 2019
The Catholic church in the Amazon has denounced attacks on the environment and the life of indigenous people — setting out on a collision course with Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro.
Rising sea levels threaten homes of 300m people
31 Oct 2019
More than three times more people are at risk from rising sea levels than previously believed, research suggests.
Chile pulls out of hosting COP25
31 Oct 2019
Chile, wracked by civil unrest for a fortnight, has withdrawn from hosting the 2019 UN climate talks.
MEET THE COBOTS: The robots who will be your colleagues
31 Oct 2019
The latest industrial robots look like petting-zoo versions of the big machines found in many modern factories – small, cute and you can play with them. But don’t be deceived by their cuddly appearance.
New Dubai city green revolution in the desert
31 Oct 2019
Fenced off by a wall of trees, about 20km from the high rises towering over Dubai’s city centre, lies a small solar-powered settlement aiming to become a green oasis in the desert.
Why offshore windfarms could do the job
30 Oct 2019
Erecting wind turbines on the world’s best offshore sites could provide more than enough clean energy to meet global electricity demand, according to a report.
How can China tame e-commerce emissions?
30 Oct 2019
China is ground zero of the e-commerce boom, which is creating a growing mountain of waste and fuelling carbon emissions worldwide.
Fuel industry forces Russia to change plans
30 Oct 2019
The Russian government has gutted its proposed law to regulate emissions, apparently caving in to the country’s powerful fossil fuel industry.
Nations (minus the US) pledge nearly $10b
30 Oct 2019
The US did not take part in an international climate fund meeting at which wealthy countries pledged nearly $10 billion to assist poorer nations in combatting climate change.
SUVs second-biggest cause of emissions rise, says study
29 Oct 2019
Growing demand for SUVs was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018, an analysis has found.
FARTY PARTY: Munich beer bash is a gas for emissions
29 Oct 2019
Scientists say the annual Munich Oktoberfest celebration of beer, bands and bratwurst produces methane emissions as high as some major cities.
Macron turns on climate protesters
25 Oct 2019
Why are climate protesters being tear-gassed under the watch of France’s president, a self-defined climate champion?
JUNGLE BUNGLE: Brazil pushes Amazon to 2021 tipping point
25 Oct 2019
The destructive policies of Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro could push the Amazon rainforest to an irreversible tipping point within two years.
US green economy boasts 10 times more jobs
25 Oct 2019
The green economy has grown so much in the US that it employs around 10 times as many people as the fossil fuel industry.
Exxon turned its back on us, say scientists
25 Oct 2019
Telling their story before a Congressional committee for the first time, two former ExxonMobil scientists have detailed how the oil giant turned its back on the research they did for the company 40 years ago on the looming threat of climate change.
Packed court watches as Exxon goes on trial
24 Oct 2019
ExxonMobil has gone on trial in a packed courtroom in New York, where the oil giant stands accused of defrauding investors by misleading them about the risks it faces from future climate regulations.
Cities seek help to set up waste-energy plants
24 Oct 2019
Garbage from homes, schools and businesses around the globe amounted to 2.2 billion tonnes) in 2016, disproportionately discarded by people in North America, Europe and Central Asia.
HORROR STORY: It's scary the pollution Halloween produces
24 Oct 2019
Halloween next week will produce a frightening amount of plastic pollution in the form of food and costume packaging, masks and accessories, and costumes made from polyester, nylon, and acrylic.
Canadian election gives carbon tax a chance
23 Oct 2019
Environment leaders say the federal election result should be a signal from Canadians that climate change should no longer be fodder for partisan bickering.
Melting glaciers reveal five islands in Arctic
23 Oct 2019
The Russian navy says it has discovered five new islands revealed by melting glaciers in the remote Arctic.
Cook Islands sacked me, says opponent of seabed mining
22 Oct 2019
The public champion of the world’s largest marine reserve – the Cook Islands’ Marae Moana – has said she lost her job managing it because she supported a moratorium on seabed mining in the Pacific.
Exxon and oil sands go on trial in New York
22 Oct 2019
The New York attorney-general says Exxon used two sets of books and misled investors by downplaying the potential costs of carbon emissions.
Engineers turn backs on new fossil fuel projects
22 Oct 2019
Engineering firms in Australia are under increased pressure from their own employees to abandon controversial fossil fuel projects, as the sector turns its attention to the climate crisis.
Warming forces world of ice into retreat
22 Oct 2019
New evidence from the air, space, atmospheric chemistry and old records is testament to global warming impacts on the speed of change in the frozen world.
It's a tragic, desperate mess, says Attenborough
21 Oct 2019
Humanity has made a “tragic, desperate mess” of the planet, Sir David Attenborough has said.
Cocaine traffickers fuel climate change
21 Oct 2019
An ever-expanding US market for cocaine is leading to drug traffickers destroying swathes of tropical forest to create new transport routes.
Europe’s largest floating solar plant up and running
21 Oct 2019
The Rhône valley in southern France is best known for its wines and food. Now, it can also add solar power to its list of attractions.
Direct action the only way, says protester Porritt
18 Oct 2019
Direct action by protesters is the only thing that will push politicians into treating climate change as the crisis it is, says the chair of Air New Zealand’s sustainability board, Sir Jonathon Porritt.
Temperatures driving alarming levels of hunger
18 Oct 2019
The climate crisis is driving alarming levels of hunger in the world, undermining food security in the world’s most vulnerable regions, according to this year’s global hunger index.
Trump plans to open 'America's Amazon' to loggers
18 Oct 2019
Donald Trump’s administration is proposing to lift longstanding restrictions on logging in part of southeast Alaska known as “America’s Amazon”.
EU bank puts off climate policy decision
18 Oct 2019
The European Investment Bank has decided to delay until next month a decision on updating its energy lending policy.
Sorry about that, says Ecuador, and reinstates Big Oil subsidies
18 Oct 2019
Calm has returned to the streets of Quito after Ecuador’s government agreed to reinstate fuel subsidies following 11 days of nationwide, violent protests.
Italy eyes cheaper food without packaging
18 Oct 2019
Italian shoppers could soon enjoy a discount on products sold loose as part of a range of measures expected to be approved by the government.
BARE FACTS: Australia's hidden climate crisis
17 Oct 2019
Farming communities in Australia are bitterly divided over an epidemic of land clearing they say is sabotaging efforts to address climate change.
XR eyes legal action over London ban
17 Oct 2019
Extinction Rebellion is eyeing a legal challenge after police placed a London-wide ban on the group’s ongoing climate protest.
Queensland wants to jail XR protesters
16 Oct 2019
Queensland has proposed two-year jail sentences for Extinction Rebellion protesters caught with a locking device used to fix people in public places.
Copenhagen sprints to crown of first carbon-neutral capital
16 Oct 2019
Green growth and ‘hedonistic sustainability’ have helped to keep the public on board as Copenhagen seeks to be the first carbon-neutral city by 2025.
We'll see more ebola outbreaks, say scientists
16 Oct 2019
Outbreaks of ebola – the deadly virus that causes severe bleeding and liver and kidney failure – are likely to increase as the climate warms, scientists say.
Why don't all buildings have green roofs?
15 Oct 2019
Rooftops covered with grass, vegetable gardens and lush foliage are now a common sight in many cities around the world.
SURVIVAL CITY: What happens if cities act but nations don't?
15 Oct 2019
It is cities, not national governments, that are most aggressively fighting the climate crisis – and in 30 years they could look radically different.
It’s only October, so what’s with all these bushfires?
15 Oct 2019
Summer might be more than six weeks away, but out-of-control bushfires have already torn across parts of eastern Australia in recent days, destroying homes and threatening lives.
Big Three oversee $300b in fossil fuel investments
14 Oct 2019
The world’s three largest money managers have built a combined $300bn fossil fuel investment portfolio using money from people’s private savings and pension contributions, the Guardian reveals.
World needs a massive carbon tax, says IMF
14 Oct 2019
A global agreement to make fossil fuel burning more expensive is urgent and the most efficient way of fighting climate change, the International Monetary Fund says.
The 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions
11 Oct 2019
The Guardian has revealed the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.
Fight for our largest forest (it's not the Amazon)
11 Oct 2019
Cheremkhovsky forest covers a 7900 sq km sweep of terrain, but it is merely a dot in the sprawling 12 million sq km Russian boreal forest, or taiga, the world’s largest forested region.
It seems there's a little bit of the climate denier in all of us
11 Oct 2019
It's easy to spot outright rejection of the facts on climate change. But it's far harder to see our own biases and excuses that lead us to delay or deny the need for real action.
Coal is still king in Southeast Asia
10 Oct 2019
Not only will coal continue to be the dominant fuel source in power generation in Southeast Asia, its use will grow and peak in 2027 before slowing, according to a new study.
TOMATO SOURCE: Hothouses will grow up to 20 tonnes a day
10 Oct 2019
Giant greenhouses will be used to grow up to 20 tonnes of tomatoes a day using the heat from water treatment facilities in the UK.
Pope v president as Amazon burns
8 Oct 2019
Two of the most powerful forces in Brazil, the president and the pope, are pulling in opposite directions on an issue critical to climate change.
How Extinction Rebellion put the whole world on red alert
8 Oct 2019
Members of Extinction Rebellion have been described in the UK media as ecomaniacs, ecoradicals, dangerous, and a bloody mess.
“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.
