International: All stories
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”.
Global financial system must change, says UN
8 Apr 2019
A comprehensive overhaul of the world’s financial system is necessary if governments are to honour climate commitments, says a new UN-led report.
Norway’s giant oil fund dives into renewables
8 Apr 2019
Norway's trillion-dollar oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is to plunge billions of dollars into wind and solar power projects.
Last Antarctic forests send a message on climate change
8 Apr 2019
Scramble across exposed rocks in the middle of Antarctica and it's possible to find the mummified twigs of shrubs that grew on the continent millions of years ago.
These countries have prices on carbon
5 Apr 2019
More than 40 governments have now adopted some sort of price on carbon, either through direct taxes on fossil fuels or through cap-and-trade programmes.
New York to make drivers pay for pollution
5 Apr 2019
New York is set to become the first US city to charge drivers a fee for releasing planet-warming pollution from their cars.
Chinese consumers ignore calls to eat less beef
5 Apr 2019
Despite increasing prices and evidence that too much beef is bad for health and the environment, the belief in China that eating red meat makes you strong persists and consumption is accelerating.
Science festival bans fossil fuel sponsorship
5 Apr 2019
The charity running the Edinburgh international science festival is to ban sponsorship from oil companies including Shell and Total after protests by climate campaigners.
Coalition tailors budget for climate denial
4 Apr 2019
The Australian government has delivered its last budget before May elections with long-term climate and clean energy policies and technologies being ignored.
German Greens want to become the people’s party
4 Apr 2019
Germany’s Greens want to stabilise their steep rise in popularity and formulate new basic principles. What do they want to do differently?
Termites show humans how to keep their high-rise cool
4 Apr 2019
Scientists are studying the architectural skills developed by termites so we can keep cool, dry and well-ventilated in tall buildings without using fossil fuels.
Trade war spells disaster for the Amazon
3 Apr 2019
An analysis of global soya-bean production forecasts massive deforestation in Brazil — and stakeholders must act fast to prevent it.
Labor climate policy is to hit big polluters
3 Apr 2019
A Bill Shorten Labor government in Australia would add about 100 high polluters to those subject to an emissions cap, and drastically slash the present cap’s level.
EU on track for 50% emission cuts by 2030
3 Apr 2019
While Germany and Eastern European countries continue to oppose raising the EU’s 40 per cent emission reduction target for 2030, a new analysis insists the bloc will actually manage at least 50 per cent cuts under a business-as-usual scenario.
Ryanair joins what used to be the EU's all-coal polluters' club
3 Apr 2019
Low-cost carrier Ryanair has made it to the list of Europe’s top 10 carbon emitters, meaning it now ranks as high as the continent’s coal power plants in terms of pollution.
Canada imposes carbon tax on four provinces
2 Apr 2019
Canada has imposed a landmark carbon tax on four provinces which had defied Ottawa’s push to combat climate change.
Slovakia's new leader will fight Big Coal
2 Apr 2019
Slovakia’s first female president, Zuzana Èaputová, will challenge long-standing industrial interests and the financing of coal mining after being elected at the weekend.
Judge blocks Trump's Arctic drilling plans
2 Apr 2019
A judge's ruling restores former president Barack Obama’s orders putting large parts of the Arctic off-limits to offshore drilling and throws Donald Trump’s oil and gas lease sale plans into question.
How the lion lost its mojo
2 Apr 2019
The legacy of colonial hunting has made the king of beasts genetically feebler and more vulnerable.
Japan to oppose new coal-fired power plants
2 Apr 2019
Japan’s environment minister has announced he will “in principle” oppose any new plans to build or expand coal-fired power stations, as further signs emerge of a dramatic energy pivot by Australia’s top export market for thermal coal.
Can the world quench China’s thirst for milk?
1 Apr 2019
China’s leaders have championed milk as the emblem of a modern, affluent society – but their radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption will have a huge environmental cost.
CLIMATE QUESTION: How do we keep the kids interested?
1 Apr 2019
Nearly 1.5m students walked out of school on March 15 to protest about the failure of the governments to tackle climate change. The job now is to find ways to mobilise their passion in the long-term.
Corporate giants join green-energy alliance
1 Apr 2019
Hundreds of US corporate companies have joined together for a renewable-energy alliance.
Canberra gets blame for failure to cut vehicle emissions
1 Apr 2019
Cuts to carbon emissions from vehicle efficiency standards have been left out of government projections for meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitments, indicating the policy has been shelved.
UNEQUAL EMISSIONS: The gulf between global rich and poor
1 Apr 2019
Being rich, especially ultra-rich, means being directly responsible for the majority of the world’s carbon emissions.
China and India are making a greener Earth
29 Mar 2019
Despite climate change, water scarcity and the many ills affecting the planet, this generation is living on an increasingly greener Earth.
Climate denial is evil, says Mary Robinson
29 Mar 2019
The denial of climate change is not just ignorant, but “malign and evil”, according to Mary Robinson, because it denies the human rights of the most vulnerable people on the planet.
Senate defeats Green New Deal proposal
28 Mar 2019
The US Senate has defeated a motion to take up the Green New Deal, the non-binding proposal spearheaded by progressive Democratic lawmakers.
Fossil fuel now costs more, says study
28 Mar 2019
Around three-quarters of US coal production is now more expensive than solar and wind energy in providing electricity to American households, according to a new study.
ON YER TRIKE! A new way to ensure the mail gets through
28 Mar 2019
The mail must get through ... and now it's the job of e-trikes to deliver letters and parcels.
I want plans, not speeches, says UN head
27 Mar 2019
UN chief Antonio Guterres is calling on world leaders to bring plans, not speeches to a climate summit he is hosting in September.
Don't know how to save the planet? This is what you can do
27 Mar 2019
Should we become vegetarians? Is it OK to fly? The author of There Is No Planet B, a Handbook for the Make or Break Years, answers the big questions.
Australian governments subsidising fossil fuel use by more than $30,000 a minute, analysis finds
Fri 13 Mar 2026
Australian federal and state government subsidies that encourage fossil fuel use and help drive the climate crisis will reach $16.3bn this year after leaping by nearly 10%, according to a new analysis.
US National Academies of Sciences says no to demands it remove climate info
Today 11:30am
State attorneys general won't get climate chapter removed from a legal manual.
What does China’s 15th ‘five-year plan’ mean for climate change?
10 Mar 2026
China’s leadership has published a draft of its 15th five-year plan setting the strategic direction for the nation out to 2030, including support for clean energy and energy security.
Germany misses climate targets as emissions barely fall in 2025
Tue 17 Mar 2026
Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have again missed targets set by the Climate Protection Act and barely fell at all in 2025.
UK emissions fall 2.4% in 2025 as coal hits 400-year low
9 Mar 2026
The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.4% in 2025 to their lowest level in more than 150 years, according to new analysis.
Mark Carney just picked his lane on climate change
17 Feb 2026
COMMENT: Mark Carney's time as prime minister has been defined in part by his decision to roll back Trudeau-era climate policies.
'The situation is dire': War on Iran squeezes India's cooking-gas supplies
Mon 16 Mar 2026
The shockwaves of a war being fought nearly 3,000km away are now reaching India's kitchens.
Vanuatu moves forward with UN climate resolution despite Trump opposition
9 Mar 2026
The Trump administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.
Limiting warming to 2C is ‘crucial’ to protect pristine Antarctic Peninsula
24 Feb 2026
Keeping global warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial temperatures is “crucial” for limiting damage to the Antarctic Peninsula’s unique ecosystems, according to a new study.
'Blackwater' lakes and rivers in the Congo Basin are now emitting ancient carbon into the atmosphere
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Carbon that has been buried in the Congo Basin's peatlands for millennia is seeping into lakes and rivers. Why this is happening remains unclear, but researchers warn that tropical peatlands could be nearing a tipping point.
Companies – including Blackrock – retired 2 million carbon credits after Verra suspended project
Thu 12 Mar 2026
Verra suspended the Pacajai REDD project in Brazil in September 2023, pending an investigation into the project’s validity. That didn’t stop Mastercard, BlackRock, Philip Morris International from retiring carbon credits from the project to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
Iran war should trigger faster exit from fossil fuel dependence, UN climate chief says
Today 11:30am
The disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is a lesson on the risks of relying on fossil fuels which should drive governments to wean their economies off oil and gas faster, the U.N. climate secretary told Reuters on Monday.
