International: All stories
What exactly is the Green New Deal?
20 Nov 2018
In a Democratic clash on Capitol Hill, progressives are pushing an ambitious plan to wean the U.S off fossil fuels. Meet the "Green New Deal."
Climate changes threaten navy shipyards
20 Nov 2018
Damage from climate change to key US military shipyards would undermine the Pentagon’s ability to respond to military crises and counter China’s ambitions.
China, Russia and Canada policies a threat
19 Nov 2018
China, Russia and Canada’s current climate policies would drive the world above a catastrophic 5deg of warming by the end of the century, according to a study that ranks the climate goals of different countries.
Crucial Antarctic current is changing
19 Nov 2018
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on our planet and is vital for Earth’s health. It is also changing as the climate warms.
Trump plans coal sideshow at Katowice
19 Nov 2018
The Trump administration plans to set up a side-event promoting fossil fuels at the UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland, next month.
Bolsonaro names climate denier as key minister
19 Nov 2018
Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named an anti-globalist diplomat to lead on foreign affairs and his country’s relationship to the Paris Agreement.
Fires become more complex, nuanced ... and alarming
19 Nov 2018
Why do wildfires seem to be escalating? Despite president Donald Trump’s tweet that the California fires were caused by “gross mismanagement” of forests, the answer is more complex, nuanced, and alarming.
Crab fishers sue fossil fuel industry
19 Nov 2018
The largest US West Coast commercial fishing association is suing 30 fossil fuel companies it says are accountable for harming shellfish and livelihoods as the ocean warms.
Spy in the sky spots households wasting heat
16 Nov 2018
People in the UK who waste heat by failing to ensure their homes, offices and factories are leak-proof will soon have the prospect of a spy in the sky to persuade them to mend their ways.
France acts to ban deforestation imports
16 Nov 2018
France intends to stop importing soy, palm oil, beef, wood and other products linked to deforestation and unsustainable agriculture by 2030, shooting ahead of the rest of the EU.
Anti-fossil fuel campaigns contain lessons
16 Nov 2018
Compared with so much ineffective climate activism, the present wave of anti-fossil fuel politics has an important advantage: it resonates better with ordinary people.
Carmakers slam new Spanish climate law
16 Nov 2018
The Spanish car lobby has hit back at the draft of the country’s first climate law published this week, which proposes to ban the sale and registration of lighter diesel and petrol vehicles from 2040.
Greenland crater points to another climate-changing asteroid collision
16 Nov 2018
A massive crater under Greenland’s ice points to a previously unknown climate-altering asteroid impact in the time of humans.
Bolsonaro already at work in the Amazon
15 Nov 2018
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped almost 50 per cent during the three-month electoral season that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power, according to preliminary official figures.
Trump plans to target heavy trucks
15 Nov 2018
The Trump administration plans to cut air pollution from heavy-duty trucks, marking one of its first moves to regulate US industry rather than roll back environmental standards.
Venice flooding is getting worse
15 Nov 2018
The spectacular centrepiece of Venice, St Mark’s Square, now floods more than 60 times a year, up from four times a year in 1900.
Sweet taste of chocolate has turned sour for orangutans
15 Nov 2018
Cadbury chocolate maker Mondelçz International has destroyed more than 25,000 hectares of orangutan habitat in Indonesia, says a new report from Greenpeace.
Heatwaves can hurt male insect fertility
15 Nov 2018
A new study of beetles could explain their global decline – and also be a warning to humankind.
We have no capacity to absorb new fossil fuel plants
14 Nov 2018
The world has so many existing fossil fuel projects that it cannot afford to build any more polluting infrastructure without busting international climate change goals, the global energy watchdog has warned.
EU states call for tough action on deforestation
14 Nov 2018
The UK, France and Germany have called on the European Commission to launch tough new action to halt deforestation by the end of the year.
Can Teresa Ribera transform Spain?
14 Nov 2018
In recent years, Spain has been a graveyard for climate-friendly policies. But there are signs the dead may be twitching back to life.
Bruised Iraq now has climate-change worries
14 Nov 2018
It’s been invaded and bombed, had a third of its territory taken over by terrorist groups, hundreds of thousands have been killed and much of its infrastructure has been destroyed. Now, Iraq has climate change to worry about.
PROBLEM PLASTIC: What's behind our sudden rage and will it make a difference?
14 Nov 2018
Decades after plastic became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt against its use is under way.
Shaw heads south to check out ice-melt threat
13 Nov 2018
Climate minister James Shaw is heading to Antarctica as scientists warn we already might have triggered tipping points leading to irreversible melting of the polar ice sheets.
Big Oil spent 1% on green energy in 2018
13 Nov 2018
Top oil and gas companies jointly spent around 1 per cent of their 2018 budgets on clean energy, a new study shows.
Environment crusaders head to Congress
13 Nov 2018
They’ve taken on polluters and built climate solutions. Now they’re bringing activism to Congress in one of the most diverse freshmen classes in US House history.
Why 2018 will see record for carbon emissions
13 Nov 2018
In 2018, humanity will pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever, and yet last year was a record year for renewable energy. What gives?
Amazon is adapting, but not fast enough
13 Nov 2018
A 30-year analysis of Amazonian trees finds the world’s largest rainforest is already adapting to climate change, but probably not fast enough.
Britain's new climate could bring wine bonanza
13 Nov 2018
Could rain-sodden Britain become the hot new wine producer?
How the US interior department became a tool of big business
13 Nov 2018
Since his first day on the job, when he surrounded himself with a police escort and rode through Washington on a horse named Tonto, US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has exhibited a flair for ostentation.
How fund managers could help save Amazon
12 Nov 2018
Large asset managers could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the Amazon forest, a new report shows, amid concerns Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro could strip the planet of its lungs.
China faces pressure over illegal greenhouse gases
12 Nov 2018
China will be urged to crack down on illegal CFC-11 production under an international declaration set for adoption at a meeting in Ecuador this week.
Germany pours money into EV battery ventures
12 Nov 2018
Germany has earmarked one billion euros to support a consortium looking to produce electric car battery cells and plans to fund a research facility to develop next-generation solid-state batteries.
Flash floods increase as mercury climbs
12 Nov 2018
Scientists once again have confirmed that humankind’s actions have triggered ever-greater extremes of rainfall – and an ever-greater rise in disastrous flash floods.
End of the end of the Earth ... according to Jonathan Franzen
12 Nov 2018
A writer at the top of his game considers climate change, what we can do and what keeps him from despair.
Carbon Clock wound back - just a tick
9 Nov 2018
The Carbon Clock showing how much time the world has left before it exhausts its carbon budget has been set back a fraction.
JFK first to be warned about climate change
9 Nov 2018
John F. Kennedy was warned about "climate control" in February 1961, becoming perhaps the first American president to learn about people's impact on planetary temperatures.
Red-meat tax would save many lives, says study
9 Nov 2018
Taxing red meat would save many lives and raise billions to pay for healthcare, according to new research.
WORTHY AWARD: 'Single-use' named 2018 word of the year
9 Nov 2018
Single-use, a term referring to products – often made of plastic – that are made to be used once and thrown away, has been named Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2018.
Climate change back on US political agenda
8 Nov 2018
With their win of control of the US House of Representatives, Democrats will now have the numbers to put climate change issues back on the Congressional agenda.
Aussie schoolkids take action over climate change inaction
8 Nov 2018
Hundreds of students around Australia are preparing to strike from school because of what they say is a failure by politicians to recognise climate change as an emergency.
Palau bans sunscreen to protect coral reefs
8 Nov 2018
Palau is set to become the first country to ban reef-toxic sunscreen.
Ministers call for transparency in climate finance
7 Nov 2018
EU economy and finance ministers have stressed the need to scale up public and private money for climate change.
E-car demand fuels rise in Congo child labour
7 Nov 2018
Demand for electric vehicles is fuelling a rise in child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, experts said this week, urging companies to take action as the industry expands.
Unseasonably hot, you say? Not any more
7 Nov 2018
The record hot weather being experienced across prts of Australia is now the new normal as the effects of climate change become baked-in.
Living normally, a platypus could ingest 69 drugs a day
7 Nov 2018
Insects near waste water could give a platypus or trout half a daily human dose of antidepressants, a new study reveals.
Plastics pollution on our beaches is becoming a pain
6 Nov 2018
Plastic rubbish on New Zealand beaches is not only hurting wildlife, it’s hurting us, too.
In two years we could face our own extinction, says UN
6 Nov 2018
The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.
Is corporate Australia facing a 'tipping point'?
6 Nov 2018
In the parlance of climate science, a "tipping point" is a dire prospect – a critical threshold breach that triggers an abrupt and rapid change in climate.
Court allows children's climate case to go ahead
6 Nov 2018
Two weeks after it put the case on hold, the US. Supreme Court has allowed a lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults against the federal government over climate change to proceed.
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.
'We’re in God’s hands now': A dispatch from Western Alaska
Mon 20 Oct 2025
An immense disaster has wrought deep trauma on Western Alaska’s Indigenous residents and is raising existential questions about the future of their low-lying communities amid a changing climate and a tightening state budget.
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.
EU plans support for countries affected by carbon border levy
Mon 20 Oct 2025
The European Union will offer development funding to countries affected by the bloc's carbon border tariff, the European Commission said on Thursday, as it attempts to soothe developing economies' concerns over the policy.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
Thu 16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
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.
Familiar tensions emerge at the Pacific Islands Forum
26 Sep 2025
With China-Taiwan rivalry, China-Western competition, and big carbon emitters at odds with the islands on climate policy, there is plenty of tension to go around.
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.
