International: All stories
How Australia could be 100% renewable by 2030s
12 Sep 2018
Australia could reach the equivalent of 100 per cent renewables for its electricity needs by the early 2030s by doing nothing more than maintaining the current pace of wind and solar development, a new report has found.
End nuclear power war, says France’s new minister
12 Sep 2018
France’s new environment minister François de Rugy is calling for an end to what he called the “religious war” on nuclear power and pleading for a more pragmatic approach to environmental policy.
California governor ups the clean-energy game
12 Sep 2018
California solidified its role as a world leader on climate action as Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to shift the state to 100 per cent carbon-free electricity by 2045.
Sylvia tackles Australia in her Tesla ... and look what it cost
12 Sep 2018
Sylvia Wilson, a 70-year-old retired farmer, drove around Australia in an electric car. It cost her $150.90.
Rich countries out to weaken Paris rules, say critics
11 Sep 2018
Complaints are growing that the United States and other wealthy countries are trying to manipulate the Paris Agreement rules to protect polluters and weaken their own commitments.
Thousands march across US to protest at environment crisis
11 Sep 2018
Tens of thousands of people took part in marches and other events across the US at the weekend, calling for a swift transition to renewable energy.
China cracks down on distant fishing fleets
11 Sep 2018
China’s fishery authorities have introduced hard-hitting punishments for overfishing and illegal fishing by the country’s distant fishing vessels.
Morrison says national energy guarantee 'dead'
10 Sep 2018
Australia's new government remains committed to meeting its Paris emissions targets even as it moves to dump climate change moves that led to the demise of the previous leadership.
Countries inch forward on Paris Agreement
10 Sep 2018
The Bangkok climate change talks have closed with uneven progress on the guidelines that will tell the world how to implement the Paris Agreement.
THIS IS THE BBC: How to best report climate change news
10 Sep 2018
The BBC, one of the world’s largest and most respected news organisations, has issued formal guidance to its journalists on how to report climate change.
Global drink firms back plan to drop plastic
10 Sep 2018
Global soft drink companies have made their biggest commitment yet to eliminating the use of throwaway plastic bottles, in an action plan presented to UK parliament.
Work begins on universal environment pact
10 Sep 2018
Governments have taken the first steps on a path that might lead to the creation of a global environment treaty.
Australia tried to water down Pacific stand, says PM
7 Sep 2018
Australia tried to water down a resolution on climate change agreed by country representatives at the Pacific Islands Forum, a leader attending the event has claimed.
World's largest offshore windfarm opens
7 Sep 2018
The world’s biggest offshore windfarm has officially opened in the Irish Sea, amid warnings that Brexit could increase costs for future projects.
Plastic can holders on way out as Carlsberg beer goes for glue
7 Sep 2018
Familiar plastic can holders used for lager and beer multipacks could be on their way out after global brewing giant Carlsberg revealed plans to replace them with recyclable glue.
NZ backs Pacific call for UN to do more
6 Sep 2018
New Zealand is backing other Pacific nations calling for the United Nations to up its game over the security threats posed by climate change.
Bangkok negotiators racing the clock
6 Sep 2018
Climate change negotiators who began an important meeting in Bangkok yesterday are under the gun.
Brazil court overturns glyphosate ruling
6 Sep 2018
Brazilian farmers will continue to have access to the world’s most-used weed killer after a court reversed a ruling which had suspended the existing and new registration of glyphosate-based products.
Macron under pressure to up his game
6 Sep 2018
French environment campaigners have warned president Emmanuel Macron is doing too little to combat climate change and must radically rethink his environment policy if he is to honour his promise to “make this planet great again”.
Soggy Bangkok struggles to stay afloat
6 Sep 2018
As Bangkok hosts climate-change talks, the sprawling city of more than 10 million is itself under siege from the environment, with dire forecasts warning it could be partially submerged in just over a decade.
Deforestation claims movie-star macaw
6 Sep 2018
Spix’s macaw, a brilliant blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children’s animation Rio, has become extinct this century, according to a new assessment of endangered birds.
Nations scramble for power as warming opens up the Arctic
5 Sep 2018
On Monday, a Danish container ship sailed from South Korea. On September 22, it will dock in Germany. The bit in between could change the world.
Polish climate chief phones a friend (or two)
5 Sep 2018
Polish deputy energy minister Michaù Kurtyka, who will lead the most important climate talks since the Paris Agreement, though he'd better phone a few friends.
Australian Greens back Labor and climate action
5 Sep 2018
Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale will promise to work with a new Labor government to get action on climate change back on track.
How deforestation is affecting global water cycles
5 Sep 2018
Destruction of tropical forests is disrupting the movement of water in the atmosphere, causing major shifts in rainfall.
Animal waste is turning China's lakes green
5 Sep 2018
Animal husbandry is contaminating China’s water and has been linked to turning lakes bright green, a phenomenon known as eutrophication.
It's time to deliver at Bankok climate talks
4 Sep 2018
Since the Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015, negotiators have been grappling with how to set it in motion with a strong framework of rules, commonly known as “the Paris Rulebook.”
BLOCKS BAN: Lego says no more plastic pieces by 2030
4 Sep 2018
Lego has announced plans to stop the production of plastic blocks by 2030.
Mental hospital best for some leaders, says Samoa PM
3 Sep 2018
Samoan leaderTuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has called climate change an “existential threat ... for all our Pacific family” and said that any world leader who denied climate change’s existence should be taken to a mental hospital.
Burgeoning bugs might monster grain crops
3 Sep 2018
Growing swarms of hungrier and hyperactive insects might wipe out big percentages of the world's three most important grain crops, wheat, corn and rice, scientists warn.
Fish populations could rise in warming climate
3 Sep 2018
Better management of fisheries and fishing rights around the world could increase profits and leave more fish in the sea as long as measures to meet climate obligations are taken, new research has found.
Nestle eyes using plastic waste for fuel
3 Sep 2018
NESTLE is exploring the use of plastic waste as a raw material for fuel.
Australia rolls out roll-out solar panels
31 Aug 2018
Australia has installed its first solar cells made using a conventional reel-to-reel printer.
How making smartphones can bury a whole village in sludge
31 Aug 2018
Mining of precious metals used in smartphones is a vital activity that underpins the modern global economy. But the environmental cost can be enormous.
California plans to run on carbon-free power by 2045
31 Aug 2018
Legislation has been passed to move California towards 100 per cent clean energy by 2045.
French environment minister walks out
30 Aug 2018
France’s high-profile environment minister Nicolas Hulot has unexpectedly announced his resignation live on national radio, lamenting the government’s lack of decisive action on green issues.
How a warming planet could speed up the southern seas
30 Aug 2018
As the planet warmed at the end of the last ice age, the abyssal Pacific circulation kicked into high gear.
Keep flying and eating red meat, says UN
30 Aug 2018
Don't bother changing your lifestyle to stop climate change - just buy carbon credits, says a UN climate change video promotion.
Brazil could restore a huge swathe of the Amazon
30 Aug 2018
Although almost 40 per cent of the Brazilian Amazon is conserved by protected areas and indigenous lands, some 428,721 sq km has been deforested over the past three decades.
Experts want to turn Henderson carparks into housing
29 Aug 2018
Five teams have been short-listed in a global design competition that could see two Auckland carparks redeveloped as eco-housing centres.
Rising emissions could push millions into malnutrition
29 Aug 2018
An additional 290 million people could face malnutrition by 2050 if little is done to stop the rise of greenhouse gas emissions, a study finds.
Dire climate report raises fears for California
29 Aug 2018
California’s summer of deadly wildfires and dangerous heatwaves will soon be the new normal if nothing is done to stop climate change, a new report warns.
Truck makers push back against EU carbon limits
29 Aug 2018
The European Commission’s proposal to mandate a 15 per cent cut in CO2 emission from trucks by 2025 is overly ambitious, according to an industry association.
Minecraft mod brings into play battle to beat climate change
29 Aug 2018
The GlobalWarming mod was created by a student who wants people to learn to work together to combat climate change.
Morrison names anti-wind man as energy minister
28 Aug 2018
New Prime Minister Scott Morrison has appointed one of Australia's most prominent anti-wind campaigners as energy minister and a former mining industry lawyer as environment minister.
Tropical disease outbreaks growing in Europe
28 Aug 2018
Europe is facing a growing threat of tropical disease outbreaks, as rising temperatures linked to climate change cause illnesses brought by travellers to spread more easily.
Sunshine Coast to try smart street lighting
28 Aug 2018
A scheme to use intelligent street lighting is to be given a two-year trial on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.
Europe to ban halogen lightbulbs
28 Aug 2018
After nearly 60 years of brightening homes and streets, halogen lightbulbs will be banned across Europe on 1 September 1.
Does ScoMo mean slo-mo for climate change action?
27 Aug 2018
Australia's new Prime Minister Scott Morrison in February last year brandished a lump of coal in Parliament and told members: "This is coal. Don’t be afraid, don’t be scared.”
STORM SURGE: Hurricane Lane carries warning for the Pacific
27 Aug 2018
Warming water in the Central Pacific as global temperatures rise is likely to boost tropical storm activity in a region largely spared in the past.
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.
