International: All stories

China busily expanding its UN presence
8 Aug 2019
As the United States withdraws from the international arena, China is playing for dominance in United Nations spaces.

Green growth is trusted fix – here’s the problem with that
8 Aug 2019
You might have missed it, but a recent report declared that the main strategy of world leaders for tackling climate change won’t work.

DRONE ALONE: Ocean-going science in the southern seas
7 Aug 2019
New Zealand scientists have played a major role in the voyage of a wind-powered surface vehicle called a saildrone that is the first unmanned system to circumnavigate Antarctica.

Southeast Asia drowning in electronic waste
7 Aug 2019
As awareness of the toxic fall-out of Southeast Asia's e-waste crisis grows, what's being done to defuse an environmental timebomb in the making?

We might be expecting too much of the Amazon
7 Aug 2019
The Amazon might not be sequestering as much carbon dioxide as we think, scientists say.

China Oil threatens major African nature reserve
7 Aug 2019
One of the largest nature reserves on continental Africa might soon be destroyed by the China National Petroleum Corporation in the name of oil exploration.

BHP threatens to quit Minerals Council
6 Aug 2019
Big miner BHP is again reviewing its membership of the Minerals Council of Australia lobby group following disagreements over environmental policy.
Artificial snow could save the world, but there's a downside
6 Aug 2019
In theory, artificial snow could save the ice caps and limit sea level rise. The downside is that rescuing civilisation this way would sacrifice Antarctica.

We must change food production, says IPCC
5 Aug 2019
Attempts to solve the climate crisis by cutting carbon emissions from only cars, factories and power plants are doomed to failure, scientists will warn this week.

Arctic wildfires: How bad are they and what caused them?
5 Aug 2019
Wildfires are ravaging parts of the Arctic, with areas of Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and Canada engulfed in flames and smoke.
NZ stays out of islands' beef with Australia
2 Aug 2019
New Zealand is not joining other Pacific countries in criticising Australia’s plans to use Kyoto credits to meet its Paris Agreement target.

Capitalism part of solution, says Carney
2 Aug 2019
Capitalism is “very much part of the solution” to tackling the climate crisis, according to the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.

The Med is Europe’s most waste-polluted sea
2 Aug 2019
The Mediterranean Sea is the most waste-polluted sea in Europe, according to a 20-year study.
Ethiopia gets busy and plants 350 million trees in one day
2 Aug 2019
Ethiopia has set a new world mark by planting more than 350 million trees in just one day.

Pacific leaders serve Australia with blunt warning
1 Aug 2019
Pacific leaders have called on Australia to abandon plans to use carry-over credits to meet Paris climate targets and to immediately stop new coalmining, warning some of their countries could be uninhabitable as soon as 2030.

Can China electrify all new cars by 2030?
1 Aug 2019
Electric vehicles are taking off in China but a long road lies ahead before they displace conventional vehicles.

Airport expansion stalls on climate grounds
1 Aug 2019
Marseille Provence Airport has been forced to revisit expansion plans, after the environment authority questioned how they fit with France’s climate targets.
This week, we passed Earth's resources point of no return
1 Aug 2019
Researchers can calculate the exact day of the year which we have surpassed the resources Earth can regenerate annually … this year that date was July 29.

China likely to meet climate change goals early
31 Jul 2019
China appears to be on track to reach its carbon goals up to nine years earlier than planned under the Paris Agreement.

Boris has plans for UK nuclear power tax
31 Jul 2019
All electricity consumers in Britain will pay a new UK nuclear tax, a levy on their bills to finance the construction of nuclear power plants under a scheme announced by the government.

Philippines now deadliest place for green warriors
31 Jul 2019
The Philippines has replaced Brazil as the most murderous country in the world for people defending their land and environment.
At the garbage cafe, pay for your curry with plastic waste
31 Jul 2019
No money … no problem. Bring plastic waste and get a free curry at India's first “garbage café”.

Experts call for ban on glass skyscrapers
30 Jul 2019
Leading architects and engineers are calling for all-glass skyscrapers to be banned because they are too difficult and expensive to cool.

Storms damage nearly half Australia's seaboard
30 Jul 2019
Extreme climate events such as heatwaves, floods and drought damaged 45 per cent of the marine ecosystems along Australia’s coast in a seven-year period.

Tokyo turns to e-waste for fashionable Olympic medals
30 Jul 2019
Medals awarded at next year's Tokyo Olympics will be made from metals recycled directly from cell phones, computers and other electronic waste.

European bank looks to cut all fossil fuel projects
29 Jul 2019
The European Investment Bank has vowed to end its multibillion euro financing for fossil fuel projects by the end of next year.

TRAVEL TIP: Note the famous views tourists likely to lose
29 Jul 2019
Tourists who question scientific evidence of the climate crisis are being shown graphic images of famous views we’ll lose.

Environment damage a war crime, say scientists
26 Jul 2019
International lawmakers should adopt a fifth Geneva convention that recognises damage to nature alongside other war crimes, according to scientists.

Von der Leyen faces carbon border tax battle
26 Jul 2019
New European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen must tread carefully if she is to meet her promise to make polluting importers pay.

Car craze brings gridlock and grumpiness to beaming Bhutan
26 Jul 2019
Booming car sales in Bhutan, famed for valuing Gross National Happiness over economic growth, are testing the good humour of the citizens.

What Boris Johnson thinks about climate crisis
25 Jul 2019
Here's what new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said and done about climate change.
BUTT OUT: Our most-littered item is impacting plant growth
25 Jul 2019
In the frenzy to ban plastic utensils, foam containers, straws and single-use bags, the world’s No1 most-littered item has been mostly ignored - cigarette butts.

UN chief drops a line - to everyone
24 Jul 2019
UN chief António Guterres wrote to every head of state over the weekend, demanding they set out plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Melting ice will hurt Southeast Asia
24 Jul 2019
Southeast Asia will be hardest hit by rising sea levels caused by melting and collapsing ice sheets.
Many animals can't handle changing climate
24 Jul 2019
The climate is changing too quickly for many animals to adapt, threatening their survival, scientists have confirmed.

Iceland leaves memorial to a glacier - and a global warning
24 Jul 2019
The first of Iceland’s 400 glaciers to be lost to the climate crisis will be remembered with a memorial plaque – and a sombre warning for the future.

We need to talk, scientists said 40 years ago
23 Jul 2019
Forty years ago, a group of climate scientists sat down in Massachusetts for the first meeting of the “Ad Hoc Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate”.

Biden vows net-zero farming emissions
23 Jul 2019
Joe Biden, frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for US president, has one of the more ambitious rural climate-related goals ... but could his plan actually achieve net-zero emissions?

Energy company brings solar to islands
22 Jul 2019
New Zealand sustainable energy company Infratec has successfully completed a $16 million project to deliver reliable renewable energy to four islands in the Cooks.

US on path to extreme heat, warn scientists
22 Jul 2019
Widespread increases in extreme heat due to climate change could bring unprecedented risks to the US in coming decades, a new study has warned.

Betting on geoengineering has its risks
22 Jul 2019
The world economy collapsed when homeowners couldn't repay subprime mortgages. We're now making a similar bet on 'repaying' carbon emissions.
In a mushroom suit you'll be pushing up more than daisies
22 Jul 2019
A mushroom suit for the deceased during burial offers a way to limit the environmental impact of traditional funerals.

THE CHALLENGE: Grow more food without more land
19 Jul 2019
To feed a global population that's hurtling toward 10 billion people, the world's farms will have to increase output faster and more efficiently than at any point in history.

Leaked report warns of bioenergy and food clash
19 Jul 2019
Blanketing the globe with monocultures of forests and bioenergy crops is no dream fix to the climate crisis, a leaked draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns.
Offshore auctions will bring Queen a windfall of millions
19 Jul 2019
The Queen stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the world’s biggest offshore windpower auction in a decade.

Manmade Antarctic snows could save coastal cities
18 Jul 2019
Spraying trillions of tons of snow over west Antarctica could halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise, according to a new study.

Adani sets dangerous science precedent
18 Jul 2019
A freedom of information request has revealed Adani sought the names of Australian scientists involved in reviewing groundwater management plans related to its proposed Carmichael mine.
Can the global cement industry cut back its carbon emissions?
18 Jul 2019
Cement is the key ingredient in concrete, which has been called the most destructive material on Earth.

Elephants are our friends in climate fight
18 Jul 2019
Feeding elephants increase in the amount of carbon that forests are able to store, says a new study.

Climate stance pays off for new EC leader
17 Jul 2019
Ursula von der Leyen has been confirmed as the first women president of the European Commission in a nail-biting vote that put climate change centre stage.