International: All stories
Coal deals go down at China’s ‘green’ summit
1 May 2019
Investment deals emerging from China’s belt and road summit show continued support for controversial coal projects, despite leaders’ green rhetoric.
Spain’s socialists win with Green New Deal platform
1 May 2019
Spaniards have thrown their weight behind a Green New Deal programme in re-electing the pro-climate Spanish Socialist Party.
Los Angeles reveals its own Green New Deal
1 May 2019
Mayor Eric Garcetti has unveiled a sweeping plan for a more sustainable Los Angeles, calling for dramatic changes to the car culture, buildings and air quality of America’s second-largest city.
'Biodegradable' bags survive three years in soil and sea
1 May 2019
Plastic bags that claim to be biodegradable were still intact and able to carry shopping three years after being exposed to the natural environment, a study has found.
How Australia can be 100% renewables by 2030s
1 May 2019
Australia could be powered 100 per cent by “intermittent” renewables by the early 2030s, says climate change policy expert Professor Ross Garnaut.
Corbyn launches bid to declare climate emergency
30 Apr 2019
Labour will this week force a vote in the UK parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency.
Activists stage die-in protests across globe
30 Apr 2019
Extinction Rebellion supporters around the world have held a series of mass die-ins to highlight the risk of the human race becoming extinct asa result of climate change.
Militaries go green in face of climate assault
30 Apr 2019
Highly efficient air conditioners, LED lights and power meters will be used alongside weapons of war at an upcoming NATO exercise.
Soccer and WWF join forces to boost sustainability
30 Apr 2019
The French professional football governing body and environmental group WWF have signed a partnership to reduce the ecological footprint of football clubs.
Large fines could clean up corporations
29 Apr 2019
Courts have often been seen as soft on polluters, hesitating to penalise environmental criminals harshly.
Warming hits ocean species hardest
29 Apr 2019
Populations of fish, molluscs and other marine animals are disappearing at twice the rate of land-based species, new research shows.
Emperor penguins flee unsteady ice
29 Apr 2019
Antarctica's charismatic emperor penguins have abandoned one of their biggest colonies after breeding pairs there failed to raise almost any new chicks in three years.
Figures show we're heading into a hot 2019
26 Apr 2019
Global surface temperatures in 2019 are on track to be either the second or third warmest since records began in the mid-1800s, behind only 2016 and possibly 2017.
Climate warming might boost economic inequality
26 Apr 2019
Warmer temperatures are widening the chasm separating richer and poorer countries.
Dying bananas signal we've got our global food system wrong
26 Apr 2019
Panama disease, an infection ravaging banana plants globally, is a warning that we are growing our food in an unsustainable way.
New study pushes global deal for nature
24 Apr 2019
For years, experts in conservation and climate science have urgently pursued two parallel paths—one to interrupt a large-scale extinction event, the other to avert a runaway climate crisis.
IT'S NO JOKE: Laughing gas is leaking from Alaska permafrost
24 Apr 2019
US scientists have identified yet another hazard linked to the thawing permafrost - laughing gas.
Pacific cities call for rethink of climate resilience
24 Apr 2019
Climate change planning for Pacific Islands cities and towns has been limited, despite their rapid growth.
Climate scientists support youth protests
24 Apr 2019
The youth protests urging political action on climate change have won strong global backing from climatologists, as more than 6000 scientists express their support.
Greta goes for climate change general strike
23 Apr 2019
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, has given her support for a general strike for the climate.
Flygskam (that's flight shame) is spreading across Europe
23 Apr 2019
Fears over climate change have led many to rethink the way they travel and, in Sweden, they've even invented a new word for the shame associated with flying.
New York sets ambitious climate rules
23 Apr 2019
New York City has set an ambitious new standard for combating greenhouse gas emissions, approving a package of climate policies designed to slash energy use in big buildings.
Europe needs its own Green New Deal
18 Apr 2019
Europe needs its own Green New Deal to stave off the perfect storm of populism, climate change and economic crisis.
Finance ministers pledge climate action
18 Apr 2019
Finance ministers from 23 countries have pledged to back climate action through their policy, tax and spending decisions.
Asian voters want environmental action
18 Apr 2019
Voters across Asia are most likely to usher in governments that take a stronger stance on climate change and other environmental issues, according to surveys released in the lead-up to national elections.
China eyes nuclear fusion power by 2040
17 Apr 2019
China aims to complete and start generating power from an experimental nuclear fusion reactor by around 2040.
Finns vote for party against climate action
17 Apr 2019
A Finnish political party that campaigned against ambitious climate change policies has won the second-highest number of seats in parliamentary elections.
Could tipping points save the climate crisis?
17 Apr 2019
Search online for “climate change” and “tipping points” and you’ll find some scary results.
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND: How plastic can get everywhere
17 Apr 2019
Microplastic is raining down on even remote mountaintops, a new study has revealed, with winds having the capacity to carry the pollution “anywhere and everywhere”.
'Hair dryer' winds pressure Antarctic ice
16 Apr 2019
Warm, dry winds in Antarctica can cause major melt as they sweep across the ice, even during frigid winter months.
Crowds of climate protesters disrupt London
16 Apr 2019
Thousands of people have blocked well-known landmarks and a bridge in central London, bringing widespread disruption to the capital in a “climate rebellion” that organisers say could last several days.
MARINE MESSAGE: From under the sea, a president's plea
16 Apr 2019
The Seychelles president has made a plea for stronger protection of the “beating blue heart of our planet”, in a speech delivered from deep below the ocean’s surface.
UK plant aims to make hydrogen from plastic waste
16 Apr 2019
Two British companies are joining forces to establish a plant which will turn plastic waste into hydrogen.
Rio Tinto ready to quit Minerals Council
15 Apr 2019
Rio Tinto has signalled it is prepared to quit its membership of industry associations, including the Minerals Council, if the council makes public statements inconsistent with Australia’s Paris climate agreement commitment.
Australia not ready, say expert firefighters
15 Apr 2019
More than 20 former fire and emergency chiefs from multiple states and territories say Australia is unprepared for worsening natural disasters from climate change and governments are putting lives at risk.
Glaciers’ global melt might leave peaks bare
15 Apr 2019
Many of the planet’s most scenic – and most valued – high-altitude landscapes are likely to look quite different within the next 80 years: the glaciers’ global melt will have left just bare rock.
Worried property dealers size up climate threat
12 Apr 2019
Big real estate firms are pouring resources into calculating climate risk and its likely effect on property portfolios — everything from increasingly extreme weather to sea-level rise.
Today’s young face lives with tiny carbon footprints
12 Apr 2019
Children born today will have to live their lives with drastically smaller carbon footprints than their grandparents if climate change is to be controlled.
Queensland upsets with new solar rules
12 Apr 2019
Queensland has confirmed plans to put in place controversial new regulations for solar farm construction that will restrict the installation or removal of PV panels to licensed electricians.
Australia sitting pretty on hydrogen
11 Apr 2019
With demand set to rise across the world, Australia is set to become a global primary producer of hydrogen.
Tasmania's bushfires raise mercury scare
11 Apr 2019
Tasmania’s bushfires might have resulted in the release of significant amounts of mercury from burnt trees into the atmosphere.
World Bank's new chief confirms green commitment
11 Apr 2019
Donald Trump’s choice to run the World Bank has moved swiftly to allay fears that his appointment will lead to a softening of the organisation’s approach to climate change.
In the land of El Dorado, clean water has become ‘blue gold’
11 Apr 2019
In the land where the legend of El Dorado began, the race is on to solve the mystery of a vital 21st century treasure – the water that tens of millions of people rely upon across northern South America.
Warming pushes Arctic toward ‘unprecedented state'
10 Apr 2019
Global warming is transforming the Arctic, and the changes have rippled so widely that the entire biophysical system is shifting toward an "unprecedented state," scientists say.
DC dawdles, so powerco chiefs go for green
10 Apr 2019
Patti Poppe used to drive around with an "I Love Coal" bumper sticker, but now the CEO of Michigan-based CMS Energy Corp. is eager to talk about phasing out the fossil fuel.
Threatening tide levels see UN launch push for floating cities
10 Apr 2019
A UN-backed partnership will study the futuristic prospect of floating cities, looking at how platforms at sea might help to bail out coastal cities at risk of flooding.
Europe’s food imports devour rainforests
10 Apr 2019
Human appetites drive global rainforest destruction. Now science has measured how Europe’s food imports leave scorched tropical soils and greenhouse gases.
Australia's fire forests might be changed forever
9 Apr 2019
Parts of Australia’s climate change-impacted forests might never be the same again, scientists say.
Climate change drives migrants to the US
9 Apr 2019
The northern triangle of Central America, the largest source of asylum seekers crossing the US border, is deeply affected by environmental degradation.
Sikhs aim to plant a million trees as 'gift to the planet'
9 Apr 2019
Sikhs around the world are marking 550 years since the birth of founder Guru Nanak by planting a million trees as a “gift to the entire planet”.
Australian rainforests no longer a carbon sink – study
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Australia's tropical rainforests are among the first in the world to start emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb, scientists said Thursday, linking the "very concerning" trend to climate change.
States sue to stop Trump cancellation of $7 billion solar grant program
Today 11:00am
Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its cancellation of a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities, according to court papers.
In China, climate litigation starts with the state
Thu 16 Oct 2025
With thousands of dedicated courts and more than a million recent cases, environmental and climate litigation is booming in China, but it often looks different to the trend seen elsewhere.
How one country’s Russian gas crisis became a green energy boom
Today 11:00am
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Moldova quickly empowered its small towns to produce their own renewable energy so no one could push it around.
UK Prime Minister will attend Brazil climate summit
Today 11:00am
Keir Starmer will travel to the Amazon rainforest for the COP30 United Nations climate summit next month, Downing Street has confirmed, after weeks of speculation that he would not.
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Indonesia restarts international carbon trade after four years
Fri 17 Oct 2025
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has issued a new decree to restart international carbon emission trading after a four year hiatus.
Mystery heatwave warms Pacific Ocean to new record
Today 11:00am
The waters of the north Pacific have had their warmest summer on record, according to BBC analysis of a mysterious marine heatwave that has confounded climate scientists.
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
Angola lowers climate ambition in blow to spirit of Paris Agreement
14 Oct 2025
Angola has scaled back its targets for reducing emissions in its new national climate plan, saying it chose “realism and implementability” over the Paris Agreement's calls for governments to set progressively more ambitious goals.
Four Brazilians to watch at COP30
Wed 15 Oct 2025
Influential Brazilians, from government figures to Indigenous activists, will take center stage during UN climate talks in the Amazon next month.
New UN carbon market rules could reshape how investors value nature
Mon 20 Oct 2025
A debate over carbon permanence – how long CO2 must stay stored to count towards offsetting emissions – is reshaping global carbon markets and could determine whether nature remains investable.
